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MAKERS  OF  AMERICA" 


JOHN   WINTHROP 


JHtst  <3abmwx  at  tjje  iWaggarfjuwtta 


BY 


JOSEPH   HOPKINS  TWICHELL 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,    MEAD,   AND    COMPANY 

1898 


<$* 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  Dodd,  Mead,  and  Co 


All  rights  reserved. 


SPRECKELS 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


TO 


The  City  of  Hartford, 

Where  John  Winthrop's  priceless  Journal  was  first  printed \ 

the  Capital  of  the  Commonwealth  of  which  his  oldest 

son  was  eighteen  times  chosen  governor  y 

Wqis  Foiume  is  ^ffccttonatelg  IBrtitcatrtr* 


That  the  "sense  of  difference  between  Right 
and  Wrong  "  had  filled  all  Time  and  all  Space  for 
man,  and  bodied  itself  forth  into  a  Heaven  and 
Hell  for  him;  this  constitutes  the  grand  feature 
of  those  Puritan,  Old-Christian  Ages;  this  is  the 
element  which  stamps  them  as  Heroic,  and  has 
rendered  their  works  great,  manlike,  fruitful  to  all 
generations.  It  is  by  far  the  memorablest  achieve- 
ment of  our  Species;  without  that  element,  in 
some  form  or  other,  nothing  of  Heroic  had  ever 
been  among  us. 

Thomas  Carlyle. 


PREFACE. 


Readers  of  this  little  book  will  considerately  bear 
in  mind  that  it  aims  to  be  a  biography,  and  not  a 
history.  John  Winthrop  was  indeed  so  generally 
identified  with  the  public  occurrences  and  events  of 
his  day  in  the  Massachusetts  Colony  that  there  are 
few  of  them  of  which  any  sketch  of  his  career  does 
not  require  at  least  a  mention.  The  proportion  of 
notice  they  receive  is,  according  to  our  design,  and 
as  will  be  seen  in  numerous  instances,  ruled  not  by 
their  importance  in  relation  to  the  Colony,  but  by 
their  importance  in  relation  to  him.  And  even  so, 
with  much  that  is  memorable  in  the  annals  of  Win- 
throp's  time  put  mostly  to  one  side,  various  historic 
passages  that  no  memoir  of  him  could  pass  by  have, 
by  reason  of  our  prescribed  limits,  been  denied  the 
ampler  exhibition  for  which  they  pleaded,  and  which 
under  other  circumstances  they  would  claim. 

For  aid  in  his  work  the  writer  is  beholden  to  more 
sources  than  he  can  undertake  to  set  down.  Yet  he 
may  be  permitted  to  express  his  grateful  sense  of 
obligation  to  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  both 
for  the  copious  treasure  of  material  afforded  by  his 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  and  for  additional 
private  assistance  most  kindly  given.  Also  to  his 
friend  and  neighbour  the  Hon.  J.  Hammond  Trum- 
bull for  abundant  and  beyond  measure  patient  ser- 
vices of  counsel  and  criticism,  the  value  of  which  it  is 
quite  unnecessary  to  remark.  Among  recent  authors 
in  the  field  of  early  New  England  history,  he  is  spe- 
cially indebted  to  Mr.  John  Fiske  and  Dr.  George 
E.  Ellis.  His  principal  authority  has,  of  course,  been 
John  Winthrop's  own  Journal.  He  has,  however,  while 
continually  citing  it,  thought  it  best  not  to  encumber 
the  pages  of  so  small  a  volume  with  foot-notes  of 
reference  to  it ;  since  the  reader  who  may  desire,  in 
the  case  of  any  extract,  to  consult  the  original,  will, 
guided  by  the  date,  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  it. 

Hartford,  Conn.,  1891. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Little  Speech. 


Page 
Anticipatory  Incident. — Impeachment  of  Deputy-Governor 
John  Winthrop.  —  The  Occasion.  —  The  Scene.  —  The 
Acquittal.  —  The  Little  Speech .    .     i-n 


CHAPTER   II. 
The  Coming  Man. 

His  Birth.  — The  Suffolk  Winthrops. —-Childhood  and 
Youth.  —  Undergraduate  at  Cambridge.  —  Early  Mar- 
riage. —  Mary  Forth.  —  Lord  of  Groton  Manor.  —  Reli- 

'  gious  Character.  —  "  Experiencia." —  "Christian  Ex- 
perience." —  The  Evil  Times.  —  Relation  to  the  Puritan 
Leaders.  —  Death  of  Mary  Forth.  —  Second  Marriage.  — 
Thomasine  Clopton. — Her  Death.  —  Third  Marriage. 

—  Margaret  Tyndal.  —  Her  Children.  —  Winthrop  the 
Lawyer.  —  Professional  Success.  —  Attorney  of  Court 
of  Wards  and  Liveries.  —  John  Winthrop  the  Younger. 

—  Education  and  Travels.  —  Correspondence  of  John 
and  Margaret  Winthrop i2~33 

CHAPTER  III. 

Farewell,  England. 

Thinks  of  emigrating  somewhither.  —  The  Purpose  a  good 
while  delayed.  —  Sudden  Resolve  on  Massachusetts.  — 


X  •     CONTENTS. 

Pagb 
Cambridge  Agreement  —  Bay  Colony  Grant.  —  The 
Salem  Vanguard.  —  Charter  secured.  —  Bay  Company 
organized.  —  Salem  reinforced.  —  Enter  Winthrop.  — 
Enlargement  of  Bay  Company  Plan.  —  Vindicates  the 
Colony  Project.  —  Opposition  of  Friends.  —  Elected 
Governor.  —  The  Long  Toil  begins.  —  Margaret  cheers 
her  Husband.  —  The  Preparations  completed. — The 
Embarkation.  —  Farewells.  —  The  Last  Word   .    .    34~54 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Westward  Ho. 

The  Governor's  Journal.  —  Its  History. — The  Voyage. 
—  Perils  in  the  Channel.  —  The  Weary  Passage.  — 
The  "Model  of  Charity."  —  Land  in  Sight.  —  Hail, 
New  England 55-61 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Day  of  Distress. 

The  Gloomy  Surprise.  —  The  Governor's  Promptitude  and 
Energy.  —  Drowning  of  Henry  Winthrop.  —  The  Dis- 
persion. —  The  Sickness.  —  The  Mortality.  —  Winter.  — 
Hunger.  —  The  Brave  Leader.  —  Testimonies  to  his  De- 
votion. —  Bread  at  last.  —  News  from  Home,  Joyful  and 
Sorrowful.  —  Thanksgiving 62-71 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Government,  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical. 

Formation  of  Churches.  —  The  Congregational  Way 
y  adopted.  —  Explanation  of  the  Fact.  —  Civil  Govern- 
ment set  in  Motion.  —  Courts  of  Assistants.  —  Morton 
of  Merry  Mount.  —  Paternalism  of  Magistrates.  —  Their 
Impartiality.  —  The  NewFreemen.  —Alarm  of  MagTT- 
traTes.^=-€olony  consents  to  Rule  of  Magistrates. — 
Precautionary  Legislation  by  Leaders 72-81 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Boston. 

Page 
Removal  to  Shawmut.  —  The  Original  Bostonian,  good 
William  Blackstone.  —  Shawmut  Peninsula.  —  Indian 
Relations.  —  Missionary  Intent  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company.  —  The  Governor's  Distinguished  Guests. — 
Assigned  to  Pastoral  Duty.  —  First  Winter  over.  —  The 
Gloom  lightens.  —  Ten  Hills  Farm.  —  The  Governor 
builds  a  Ship.  —  His  Public  Thrift. —His  Night  Ad- 
venture.—  Arrival  of  his  Family.-^  His  Christian 
Dream.  —  His  Exploration  of  the  Country      .    .    .      82-94 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Simmering  of  the  Political  Caldron. 

The  Deputy  quarrels  with  the  Governor.  —  The  Wrath  of 
Dudley.  —  Successive  Pacifications  and  New  Outbreaks. 

—  The  Final  Reconciliation.  —  The  Freemenjjot  satis- 
fied.—  The  Situation  favourable  to  Political  Develop- 
ment. —  The  Freemen  mutter.  —  Watertown  speaks  out. 

—  Magistrates  recede  a  Space.  —  The  Governor  desires 
not  to  receive  Private  Gifts.  —  His  Island  of  Gover- 
nor's Garden. —  Good  State  of  Feeling  in  the  Colony. 

—  Religion  the  Chief  Concern.  —  The  Governor  visits     — 
Plymouth 95-m 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Boiling  of  the  Political  Caldron. 

New  Arrivals.  —  Thomas  Hooker.  —John  Cotton.  —  Puri- 
tan Peers  propose  to  join  the  Colony.  —  Conditions 
found  to  be  impossible.  —  Freemeri_jtnpxe  uneasy.  — 
AgV  tn  «^>g  tVig  TKarfAr  — Cotton's  Unavailing  Election 
Sermon.  —  The  Governor  retired.  —  The  Freemen's 
Inning. —  Ex-Governor  Winthrop  renders  his  Account. 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Page 

—  Danger  from  Abroad.  —  The  Hand  of  Laud.  —  The 
Lords  Commissioners.  —  First  and  Second  Assaults  on 
the  Charter. -^- Qhaxter-ofdexed-iiome.  —  The  Colony 
defiant.  —  Defensive  Preparations.  —  Policy  of  Avoid  or 
Protract.  —  The  Danger  passes.  —  Winthrop's  Influ- 
ence paramount.  —  His  Indian  Story.  —  First  Citizen  of 
Boston 112-126 

CHAPTER   X. 

Winthrop  Disciplined  for  Lenity. 

Emigration  renewed.  —  Revival  of  Political  Agitation. — 
Israel  Stoughton's  Heresy.  —  Project  of  Code  of  Laws. 

—  Temporarily  abandoned  for  Reasons.  —  Young  Sir 
Henry  Vane  and  Hugh  Peter  arrive.  —  They  mark  an 
Alienation  and  inquire  into  its  Cause.  —  Find  it  to  be 
Winthrop's  Clemency  as  Magistrate.  —  Winthrop  prom- 
ises Amendment. —  Roger  Williams.  —  His  Character. 

—  His  Troublesomeness.  —  His  Libel  of  the  Charter.  — 
Trial  and  Banishment.  —  Not  a  Victim  of  Religious 
Bigotry. —  Endicott's  Blunder.  —  He  mutilates  the  King's 
Colours.  —  Consequences.  —  Third  Assault  on  the  Char- 
ter. —  Dissolution  of  Council  for  New  England.  —  Par- 
tition of  New  England.  —  Quo    Warranto.  —  Extremity 

of  Peril.  —  "  The  Lord  frustrated  their  Design  "   .     127-140 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Sir  Henry  Vane  Governor. 

Vane's  Coming  Welcome.  —  Elected  Governor.  —  Legis- 
lation, Conservative  and  Progressive.  —  Council  for  Life. 

—  The  Connecticut  Secession.  —  Opposed  by  Winthrop. 

—  First  Collision  with  the  Indians.  —  Col.  John  Win- 
throp. —  Founding  of  Harvard.  —  Ministers  foremost  in 
the  Work  of  Education.  —  Not  a  Priestly  Class.  —  Eu- 
logy by  Archbishop  Hughes.  —  The  Antinomian  Con- 


CONTENTS.  xni 

Page 
troversy.  —  Mrs.  Ann   Hutchinson.  —  Her   Tenets.— 
HefX)i5c1pIesT~ Capt.  John  Underhill.  —  The  Outraged 
Ministers.  —  Boston    follows    Mrs.  Hutchinson.  —  But 
not  Winthrop,  nor  the  Country.  —  The  Flame  of  Faction. 

—  Vane  would  resign,  but  is  dissuaded  by  Boston. — 
General  Court  quits  Boston.  —  The  Stormy  Election 
at  Newtown.  —  Antinomians  go  to  the  Wall.  —  Win- 
throp again  Governor.  —  Writes  the  "  Christian 
Experience" 141-158 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Winthrop  at  the  Helm  again. 

His  Fifth  Term.  —  Petulance  of  Vane.  —  His  Debate  with 
Winthrop.  —  Exit  Vane.  —  Angry  Boston.  —  Faction 
Persists,  to  the  Damage  and  Danger  of  the  State.  —  Loss 
of  New  Haven  Colony.  —  Signs  of  New  Peril  to  the 
Charter.  —  The  Government  resolves  to  act.  —  The 
Strong  Hand.  —  Purgation  of  the  Bay.  —  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  others  banished.  —  The  Pequot  War.  — The 
Indian  Peril.  — Winthrop's  Humane  Mind    .     .     .     iS9~l73 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

Fresh  Danger  from  Abroad. 

Winthrop's  Sixth  Term.  —  Donation  of  Land  to  him  by 
the  General  Court.  —  His  Dangerous  Illness.  —  Happy 
Public  Effect  of  it.  —  Cotton  Mather's  Story  of  him. — 
Large  Emigration.  —  Lords  Commissioners'  Futile  At- 
tempt to  Hinder  it. —  Fourth  Assault  on  theXharter.  — 
It  must  be  returned  forthwith. — General  Court  re- 
fuses. —  The  Governor's  Letter  to  the  Lords  Commis- 
sioners.—  Avoid  or  Protract  again  successful.  —  Win- 
throp's Seventh  Term.  —  Increasing  Rate  of  Emigration. 

—  New  Broil  of  Domestic  Parities-.— Temperance  Legis- 
lation. —  Trouble  at  Harvard.  —  The  Governor  makes  a 
Will.  —  Impoverished  by  Fraud  of  his  Steward  in  Eng- 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

Page 
land.  —  Expressions  of  Sympathy,  Public  and  Private.  — 
Colony  threatened  with  Desertion.  —  The   Governor's 
Protest 174-190 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

New  Aspects,  Home  and  Foreign. 

Winthrop  again  retired.  —  Succeeded  by  Dudley.  —  Next 
Year  by  Bellingham.  —  Revolution  in  England.  —  New 
Freedom  to  the  Colony.  —  Annexation  of  New  Hamp- 
shire Towns.  —  Body  of  Liberties  adopted.  —  Revolution 
puts  an  End  to  Emigration  and  English  Trade.  —  Ex- 
treme Hard  Times  in  Consequence.  —  Discouragement 
and  Retreat.  —  To  Winthrop's  Deep  Displeasure. — 
Winthrop  re-elected  Governor.  —  His  Eighth  and  Ninth 
Terms.  —  The  Sow  Business.  —  Conflict  again  between 
Magistrates  and  Commons. — The  Commons  win. — 
Reconstruction  of  the  Legislature.  —  The_NejK-Eng4ami 
Confederacy.  —  Winthrop  President  of  the  United  Col- 
onies Commission. —  Acadian  Relations.  —  The  La  Tour 
d'Aulnay  Episode. —  The  Governor  once  more  unpopu- 
lar. —  His  Third  Retirement.  —  Letter  to  his  Oldest 
Son       191-211 

CHAPTER    XV. 

Winthrop's  Last  Defence  of  the  Charter. 

Dudley  Governor.  —  Winthrop  in  the  Second  Place.  — 
Further  Challenge  of  the  Magisterial  Prerogative  by 
the  Commons.  —  Winthrop  champions  the  Prerogative. 
—  Conservatism  holds  its  own.— -  Parliament's  Colonial 
Commission.  —  Authority  of  it  not  acknowledged  by 
Massachusetts.  —  "  Must  not  meddle  with  any  Ships 
in  our  Harbor."  —  Endicott  Governor.  —  Winthrop 
Deputy  again.  —  The  Hingham  Business.  —  The  Dep- 
uty on  Trial.  —  Conservatism  again  holds  its  own.  — 
Winthrop  restored  to  the  First  Place.  —  Tenth  Term. 


CONTENTS.  XV 

Pack 

—  Followed  by  Eleventh.  —  The  Dissenters' Cabal.  — 
Fifth  Assault  on  the  Charter.  —  Winthrop  to  the  De- 
fence.—  The  Enemy  carries  the  War  into  England. — 
3iUie  shall  go  thither  to  speak  for  the  Colony?  — 
Winslow   of    Plymouth   called    in.  —  The   Cause    won. 

—  To  which  Opportune  Events  contribute.  —  The  Cam- 
bridge Synod  a  Sequel.  —  The  Mother  Church  of  New 
England 212-226 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Old  Governor's  Closing  Days. 

Death  of  Margaret.  —  The  Governor  loses  not  Heart  or 
Hope. —  Twelfth  Inauguration.  —  Omens  of  the  Time 
propitious.  —  Prospects  of  Massachusetts  never  so 
bright  before.  —  The  Governor  again  married.  —  Mis- 
tress Martha  Coytmore.  —  Last  Sickness.  —  Death.  — 
Funeral.  —  The  Public  Grief.  —  The  Story  Ended      227-234 


Index 235-245 


JOHN   WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   LITTLE   SPEECH. 

There  is  preserved  to  us  in  the  early  story  of 
Massachusetts  a  scene  so  interesting  in  itself,  so  illus- 
trative of  the  time  in  which  it  occurred  and  of  the 
actors  appearing  in  it,  that  it  may  fitly  be  recalled 
by  way  of  introducing  the  subject  of  this  volume,  who 
is  its  central  figure.  The  date  is  July  3,  1645  J  tne 
place  the  meeting-house  of  the  town  of  Boston,  where 
a  long  session  of  the  Great  and  General  Court,  or  Legis- 
lature, is  drawing  to  a  close.  ^  Thirteen  magistrates  and 
thirty-five  deputies  from  me  twenty-three  towns  of 
the  colony,  whose  total  population  numbers  about 
fifteen  thousand,  have  been  in  attendance,  according 
to  the  roll.  A  memorable  session  it  has  been,  en- 
gaging to  an  extraordinary  degree  the  public  atten- 
tion ;  for  since  it  opened,  on  the  14th  of  May,  it 
has  been  largely  occupied  with  what  is  in  effect  the 
impeachment  of  Deputy-Governor  John  Winthrop. 
He  is  the  recognized  chief  man  of  the  colony  j  gen- 
erally hitherto  its  most  honoured  citizen,  —  as  he 
will  be  henceforward,  —  but  now  for  a  brief  period 

1 


2  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

he  has  been  under  a  no  slight  cloud  of  popular  dis- 
pleasure. The  cause  of  his  offending  is  his  pro- 
cedure as  a  magistrate ;  not,  however,  his  procedure 
separately,  but  as  participant  with  the  majority  of  his 
fellow  magistrates  in  an  official  act  in  which,  it  is 
alleged,  they  have  exceeded  their  due  authority.  The 
question  specifically  concerns  the  right  of  the  town 
of  Hingham  to  choose  the  captain  of  its  train-band ; 
but  the  whole  affair  is  incident  to  a  conflict  with 
which  the  colony  is  vexed  relative  to  the  sphere  in 
the  government  of  the  magistracy  and  of  the  people, 
respectively.  In  the  present  instance  the  issue  has 
been  in  favour  of  the  magistracy,  and  John  Winthrop 
is  acquitted.  The  scene  which  has  been  referred  to 
took  place  in  the  General  Court  upon  the  announce- 
ment of  this  result. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  trial  Mr.  Winthrop  had 
declined  the  privilege  of  sitting  among  his  peers 
while  it  was  in  progress.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  colony  that  he  had  been  absent  from 
that  position.  The  account  of  it  in  his  own  trans- 
parently true  Journal  reads  thus :  — 

"  The  day  appointed  being  come  the  court  assembled 
in  the  meeting  house  at  Boston.  Divers  of  the  elders 
were  present  and  a  great  assembly  of  people.  The  dep- 
uty governor  coming  in  with  the  rest  of  the  magistrates 
placed  himself  beneath  within  the  bar,  and  so  sate  un- 
covered. Some  question  was  in  the  court  about  his  being 
in  that  place  (for  many  both  of  the  court  and  the  as- 
sembly were  grieved  at  it)  But  the  deputy  telling  them 
that  being  criminally  accused  he  might  not  sit  as  judge 
in  that  cause,  and  if  he  were  upon  the  bench  it  would  be 


THE  LITTLE  SPEECH.  3 

a  great  disadvantage  to  him,  for  he  could  not  take  that 
liberty  to  plead  the  cause  which  he  ought  to  be  allowed 
at  the  bar,  upon  this  the  court  was  satisfied." 

His  reasons  were  good,  yet  one  perceives  that  his 
heart  was  sore.  Called  to  plead,  after  saying  "  that 
he  accounted  it  no  disgrace  but  rather  an  honour  put 
upon  him  to  be  singled  out  from  his  brethren  in  the 
defence  of  a  cause  so  just  (as  he  hoped  to  make 
that  appear)  and  of  so  public  concernment,"  he  had 
stated  the  grounds  on  which  he  might  justly  demand 
a  dismissal  of  the  suit ;  but  had  waived  the  claim,  as 
preferring  "  to  make  answer  to  the  particular  charges, 
to  the  end  that  the  truth  of  the  case  and  of  all  pro- 
ceedings thereupon  might  appear  to  all  men,"  and 
had  remained  there  "  beneath  within  the  bar  uncov- 
ered "  throughout  the  six  or  seven  weeks'  hearing  that 
followed.  What  part  he  had  taken  in  the  examina- 
tion —  marked  by  excitement  and  heat  of  temper, 
though  apparently  cooling  in  its  later  stages  —  we  are 
not  informed. 

The  end  is  finally  reached,  and  the  Court  has  judged 
"  the  deputy  governor  to  be  legally  and  publicly  acquit 
of  all  that  was  laid  to  his  charge." 

What  ensues  is,  in  view  of  the  circumstances  that 
have  been  noted,  in  a  high  degree  dramatic ;  but  it 
cannot  possibly  be  better  told  than  in  the  simple 
words  in  which  Winthrop  himself  tells  it. 

"  Presently  .  .  .  the  magistrates  and  deputies  took 
their  places  in  the  meeting  house,  and  the  people  being 
come  together,  and  the  deputy  governor  placing  himself 
within  the  bar  as  at  the  time  of  the  hearing,  etc.,  the 


4  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

governor l  read  the  sentence  of  the  court  without  speak- 
ing any  more,  for  the  deputies  had  (by  importunity) 
obtained  a  promise  of  silence  from  the  magistrates. 
Then  was  the  deputy  governor  desired  by  the  court  to  go 
up  and  take  his  place  again  upon  the  bench,  which  he 
did  accordingly,  and  the  court  being  about  to  arise,  he 
desired  leave  for  a  little  speech." 

Before  we  listen  to  the  Little  Speech,  —  which  is  a 
very  great  one,  as  shall  be  seen,  —  we  will  pause  to 
contemplate  a  moment  the  speaker,  also  to  remark 
the  surroundings. 

As  amid  a  profound  sensation  he  stands  forth  in 
the  presence  of  the  hushed  assembly,  his  broad - 
brimmed  hat  again  in  place,  all  eyes  fastened  on 
him,  he  is  a  notable  person  to  look  upon ;  a  gentle- 
man at  first  glance ;  in  stature  somewhat  above  the 
medium,  showing  under  a  thoughtful  forehead,  from 
which  his  parted  locks  fall  upon  a  wide  ruff,  a  coun- 
tenance ,  bearded,  grave,  strong- featured,  traced  with 
the  fleep-lined*  pathetic^  signatures  of  anxiety  and 
jcare,  but  withal  of  an  aspect  noble,  refined,  sincere, 
kindly ;  a  face  that,  scanned  in  the  Vandyke  portrait 
which  hangs  in  his  house  near  by,  and  which  it  will 
be  the  fortune  of  Massachusetts  to  inherit,  is,  as  a 
modern  writer  has  felicitously  said,  "expressive  of 
what  was  finest  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  —  the  face 
of  a  spiritual  brother  of  Raleigh  and  Bacon." 

John  Winthrop  is  in  his  fifty-eighth  year,  yet  seems 
older,  —  in  fact,  somewhat  broken.  Already  some 
while  ago  he  has  written  to  a  friend  :  "  Age  now  comes 

1  Thomas  Dudley. 


THE  LITTLE  SPEECH.  5 

upon  me,  and  infirmities  therewithal,  which  makes  me 
apprehend  that  the  time  of  my  departure  out  of  this 
world  is  not  far  off."  The  fifteen  years  that  have 
passed  over  him  since  he  set  foot  in  New  England 
have  told  upon  him.  During  all  that  time  he  has 
borne  without  respite  the  ever-harassing  burden  of  the 
common  enterprise  there  as  no  other  man  has  borne 
it ;  and  a  life-consuming  burden  it  has  been.  Private 
troubles  have  befallen  him,  —  saddest  bereavements,  <  , 
loss  of  estate  ;  he  is  a  poor  man  as  well  as  an  old. 
Yt't  his  one  thought  from  first  to  last  has  been  the  wel- 
fare of  the  colony,  content  with  whatever  might  happen 
to  himself  if  only  it  prospered.  This  all  who  are 
sitting  or  standing  there  before  him,  as  he  rises  to 
address  them,  know;  and  perhaps  some  of  them, 
the  passion  of  their  late  anger  being  abated,  are 
thinking  of  it  with  compunction ;  or,  if  not  so  soon, 
they  will  when  once  he  begins. 

In  the  company  of  magistrates  grouped  behind 
him,  not  all  of  whom  have  been  on  his  side,  we  mark 
other  men  whose  presence  contributes  impressiveness 
to  the  hour.  There  is  impetuous  Thomas  Dudley, 
the  governor,  sprung  from  the  same  stock  with  the 
hapless  young  husband  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  with 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Earl  of  Leicester,  but  of  how  dif- 
ferent a  strain.  There  is  stern-visaged,  stern-hearted 
John  Endicott,  the  colony's  sergeant-major-general, — 
he  who  formerly  at  Salem  in  public  with  his  sword 
ripped  the  idolatrous  cross  from  the  ensign  of  St. 
George.  There  is  the  deputy-governor's  eldest  son, 
John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  wise  beyond  his  years,  presently 


6  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

to  bend  his  steps  toward  Connecticut,  where  by  ser- 
vice of  the  state  he  will  win  deserved  renown.  There 
are  Simon  Bradstreet  and  Richard  Saltonstall  and 
William  Pyncheon  and  Richard  Bellingham,  —  all 
worthies  of  the  colony,  destined  to  long  remem- 
brance among  men.  Nor  among  the  reverend  elders 
present  do  we  fail  to  note  masterful  John  Cotton, 
minister  of  the  congregation  in  whose  meeting-house 
the  court  is  convened,  looking  the  scholar  that  he 
is;  and  beside  him  John  Wilson,  his  colleague, 
—  both  Winthrop's  loving  friends,  as  their  faces 
to-day  betoken.  And  somewhere  in  the  throng 
Peter  Hobart,  minister  of  Hingham,  principal  insti- 
gator of  the  prosecution  just  concluded,  —  with  what 
countenance  we  may  conjecture. 

The  vanquished  deputies  are  in  their  places;  the 
whole  remaining  space  crowded  with  spectators  — 
freemen  of  the  little  commonwealth  —  drawn  thither 
by  news  of  the  event  on  hand.  Not  one  but  is 
eager  to  hear  what  the  deputy-governor  will  say ;  to 
whom,  as  his  calm  voice  breaks  the  silence,  we  may 
now  attend. 

The  Deputy-Governor's  Speech. 

I  suppose  something  may  be  expected  from  me  upon 
this  charge  that  is  befallen  me,  which  moves  me  now  to 
speak  to  you ;  yet  I  intend  not  to  intermeddle  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  court,  or  with  any  of  the  persons  con- 
cerned therein.  Only  I  bless  God  that  I  see  an  issue  of 
this  troublesome  business.  I  also  acknowledge  the  jus- 
tice of  the  court  and  for  mine  own  part  I  am  well  sat- 
isfied.    I  was  publicly  charged  and  I  am  publicly  and 


THE   LITTLE  SPEECH.  7 

legally  acquitted,  which  is  all  I  did  expect  or  desire. 
And  though  this  be  sufficient  for  my  justification  before 
men,  yet  not  so  before  the  God  who  hath  seen  so  much 
amiss  in  my  dispensations  (and  even  in  this  affair)  as  calls 
me  to  be  humble.  For  to  be  publicly  and  criminally 
charged  in  this  court  is  matter  of  humiliation  (and  1 
desire  to  make  a  right  use  of  it)  notwithstanding  I  be 
thus  acquitted.  If  her  father  had  spit  in  her  face,  (saith 
the  Lord  concerning  Miriam,)  should  she  not  have  been 
ashamed  seven  days  ?  Shame  had  lien  upon  her,  what- 
ever the  occasion  had  been.  I  am  unwilling  to  stay  you 
from  your  urgent  affairs,  yet  give  me  leave  (upon  this 
special  occasion)  to  speak  a  little  more  to  this  assembly. 
It  may  be  of  some  good  use  to  inform  and  rectify  the 
judgments  of  some  of  the  people,  and  may  prevent  such 
distempers  as  have  arisen  amongst  us. 

The  great  questions  that  have  troubled  the  country  are 
about  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  and  the  liberty  of 
the  people.  It  is  yourselves  who  have  called  us  to  this 
office,  and  being"  called  by  you,  we  have  our  authority^ 
from  Cod,  in  way  ot  an  ordinance,  such  as  hath  the  ima^e 
of  God  eminently  stamped  upon  it,  the  contempt  and 
violation  whereof  hath  been  vindicated  with  examples  of 
divine  vengeance.  I  entreat  you  to  consider,  that  when 
you  choose  magistrates,  you  take  them  from  among  your- 
selves, men  subject  to  like  passions  as  you  are.  There- 
fore when  you  see  infirmities  in  us,  you  should  reflect^  _ 
upon  your  own,  and  that  would  make  you  bear  the  more m 
with  us,  and  not  be  severe  censurers  of  the  failings  of  ._ 
your  magistrates,  when  yon  have  continual  experience  of 
the  like  infirmities  in  yourselves  and  others,  We  account 
him  a  good  servant,  who  breaks  not  his  covenant.  The 
covenant  between  you  and  us  is  the  oath  you  have  taken 
of  us,  which  is  to  this  purpose,  that  we  shall  govern  you 
and  judge  your  causes  by  the  rules  of  God's  laws  and  our 
own,  according  to  our  best  skill.  When  you  agree  with 
a  workman  to  build  you  a  ship  or  house,  etc.,  he  under- 


8  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

takes  as  well  for  his  skill  as  for  his  faithfulness,  for  it  is 
his  profession,  and  you  pay  him  for  both.  But  when  you 
call  one  to  be  a  magistrate,  he  doth  not  profess  nor  under- 
take to  have  sufficient  skill  for  that  office,  nor  can  you 
furnish  him  with  gifts,  etc..  therefore  you  ™"s*  rnn  fhf 
hazard  of  his  skill  and  abiljty^^^But  if  he  fail  in  faithful- 
ness, which  by  his  oath  he  is  bound  unto,  that  he  must 
answer  for.  If  it  fall  out  that  the  case  be  clear  to  com- 
mon apprehension,  and  the  rule  clear  also,  if  he  transgress 
here,  the  error  is  not  in  the  skill,  but  in  the  evil  of  the 
will:  it  must  be  required  of  him.  But  if  the  case  be 
doubtful,  or  the  rule  doubtful,  to  men  of  such  under- 
standing and  parts  as  your  magistrates  are,  if  your  magis- 
trates should  err  here,  yourselves  must  bear  it. 

For  the  other  point  concerning  liberty,  I  observe  a 
great  mistake  in  the  country  about  that.  There  is  a  two- 
fold liberty,  natural  (I  mean  as  our  nature  is  now  cor- 
rupt) and  civil  or  federal.  The  first  is  common  to  man 
with  beasts  and  other  creatures.  By  this,  man,  as  he 
stands  in  relation  to  man  simply,  hath,  liberty  to  do  what 
he  lists;  it  is  a  liberty  to  evil  as  well  as  to  good.  This 
liberty  is  incompatible  and  inconsistent  with  authority, 
and  cannot  endure  the  least  restraint  of  the  most  just 
authority.  The  exercise  and  maintaining  of  this  liberty 
makes  men  grow  more  evil,  and  in  time  to  be  worse  than 
brute  beasts :  omnes  sumus  licentid  deteriores.  This  is 
that  great  enemy  of  truth  and  peace,  that  wild  beast, 
which  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are  bent  against,  to  re- 
strain and  subdue  it.  The  other  kind  of  liberty  I  call 
civil  or  federal ;  it  may  also  be  termed  moral,  in  reference 
to  the  covenant  between  God  and  man,  in  the  moral  law, 
and  the  politic  covenants  and  constitutions  amongst  men 
themselves.  This  liberty  is  the  proper  end  and  object  of 
authority,  and  cannot  subsist  without  it ;  and  it  is  a  lib- 
erty to  that  only  which  is  good,  just,  and  honest.  This 
liberty  you  are  to  stand  for,  with  the  hazard  (not  only  of 
your  goods,  but)  of  your  lives,  if  need  be.     Whatsoever 


THE  LITTLE  SPEECH.  9 

crosseth  this,  is  not  authority,  but  a  distemper  thereof. 
This  liberty  is  maintained  and  exercised  in  a  way  of  sub- 
jection to  authority  ;  it  is  of  the  same  kind  of  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free.,  The  woman's  own 
choice  makes  such  a  man  her  husband ;  yet  being  so 
chosen,  he  is  her  lord,  and  she  is  to  be  subject  to  him, 
yet  in  a  way  of  liberty,  not  of  bondage ;  and  a  true  wife 
accounts  her  subjection  her  honour  and  freedom,  and 
would  not  think  her  condition  safe  and  free,  but  in  her 
subjection  to  her  husband's  authority.  Such  is  the  lib- 
erty of  the  church  under  the  authority  of  Christ,  her  king 
and  husband  ;  his  yoke  is  so  easy  and  sweet  to  her  as  a 
bride's  ornaments  ;  and  if  through  frowardness  or  wan- 
tonness, etc.,  she  shake  it  off,  at  any  time,  she  is  at  no 
rest  in  her  spirit,  until  she  take  it  up  again  ;  and  whether 
her  lord  smiles  upon  her,  and  embraceth  her  in  his  arms, 
or  whether  he  frowns,  or  rebukes,  or  smites  her,  she  ap- 
prehends the  sweetness  of  his  love  in  all,  and  is  refreshed, 
supported,  and  instructed  by  every  such  dispensation  of  his 
authority  over  her. .  On  the  other  side,  ye  know  who  they 
are  that  complain  of  this  yoke  and  say,  let  us  break  their 
bands,  etc.,  we  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us.  Even 
so,  brethren,  it  will  be  between  you  and  your  magistrates. 
If  you  stand  for  your  natural  corrupt  liberties,  and  will 
do  what  is  good  in  your  own  eyes,  you  will  not  endure 
the  least  weight  of  authority,  but  will  murmur  and  op- 
pose and  be  always  striving  to  shake  off  that  yoke  ;  but 
if  you  will  be  satisfied  to  enjoy  such  civil  and  lawful  lib- 
erties, such  as  Christ  allows  you,  then  will  you  quietly 
and  cheerfully  submit  unto  that  authority  which  is  set 
over  you,  in  all  the  administrations  of  it,  for  your  good. 
Wherein  if  we  fail  at  any  time,  we  hope  we  shall  be  will- 
ing (by  God's  assistance)  to  hearken  to  good  advice  from 
any  of  you  or  in  any  other  way  of  God  ;  so  shall  your 
liberties  be  preserved  in  upholding  the  honour  and,  power 
of  authority  amongst  you.     " 


10  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

It  has  been  said  by  John  Winthrop's  most  distin- 
guished descendant,  —  the  venerable  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp,  happily  still  with  us,  —  that  while  "  American 
history  furnishes  many  noble  subjects  for  the  skill  of 
the  painter,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  a  nobler  one 
could  anywhere  be  found "  than  the  scene  which 
witnessed  the  utterance  of  this  address.  "  It  recalls," 
observes  one  of  our  national  historians,  "  the  most 
interesting  scenes  of  Greek  and  Roman  history ; " 
adding,  of  the  address  itself,  that,  "in  the  wisdom, 
piety,  and  dignity  that  it  breathes,  it"  resembles  the 
magnanimous  vindication  of  a  judge  in  Israel." 
Another  discriminating  pen  pronounces  it  "  equal  to 
anything  in  antiquity,  whether  we  consider  it  as  com- 
ing from  a  philosopher  or  a  magistrate." 
"No  one  who  brings  sympathy  to  his  perusal  of 
the  annals  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  but 
will  assent  to  these  glowing  judgments.  Nor  will  an 
impartial  estimate  of  the  quality  of  John  Winthrop, 
as  derived  from  those  annals  and  all  supplementary 
sources,  hesitate  to  allow  that  his  appearance  in  the 
scene  so  spoken  of  is  fairly  representative  of  him,  — 
of  the  man,  his  character,  his  ideas.  As  for  his  ideas, 
while  time  proved  a  particular  conclusion  he  deduced 
from  them  in  1645  untenable,  —  for  the  paternal  view 
of  the  magistracy  in  a  free  government,  as  he  held  it, 
passed  away, — what  more  adequate  statement  than 
his  on  that  occasion  of  the  fundamental  nature  of 
civil  liberty  have  the  two  and  a  half  succeeding 
centuries  produced? 

They  who  are  not  able  to  discern  in  our  earlier  and 


THE  LITTLE  SPEECH.  1 1 

humble  day  the  vital  operation  of  the  life-principle  of 
the  better  future  we  behold  because  it  is  seen  en- 
cumbered with  excrescences  from  the  past;  who 
[disparage  our  fathers  because,  while  blazing  the  trail 
of  freedom,  they  did  not  lay  a  course  for  it  that 
required  no  subsequent  correction,  and  make  it  a 
macadamized  road ;  in  whose  regard  their  merit, 
wherein  they  were  in  advance  of  their  time,  is  can- 
celled by  the  fact  that  in  some  points  they  were  men 
of  their  time  ;  who  in  their  case  put  aside  the  rule  that 
"  we  are  to  judge  the  actions  of  men  by  the  light  we 
have,  but  men  by  the  light  they  have,"  —  will  have 
little  difficulty  in  maintaining  a  slighting  and  even 
contemptuous  opinion  of  the  Puritan  age  in  Massa- 
chusetts. They  who  think  otherwise,  will  have  as 
little  in  reading  in  the  tale  of  those  years,  "  in  which 
the  strongest  race  that  Massachusetts  will  ever  see, 
grew  up  on  her  lean  soil,"  a  shining  chapter  in  the 
evolution  of  those  causes  "  which  have  shifted  the 
world's  political  centre  of  gravity  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  the  Rhine  to  the  Atlantic  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, from  the  men  who  spoke  Latin  to  the  men 
who   speak  English."  1 

And  to  such,  the  Puritan  chief  who  delivered  the 
Little  Speech  in  the  meeting-house  at  Boston  will  be 
accounted  one  of  the  princes  of  our  civilization. 

1  Beginnings  of  New  England,  John  Fiske,  p.  50. 


12  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   COMING   MAN. 
(1588 -1629.) 

"  John,  the  only  sonne  of  Adam  Winthrop  and  Anne 
his  wife,  was  borne  in  Edwardston  abovesaid  on  Thurs- 
day about  5  of  the  clocke  in  the  morning  the  12  daie  of 
January  anno  1587  in  the  30  yere  of  the  reigne  of  Qu: 
Eliza :  " 

So,  exactly,  reads  his  birth-record,  —  a  smiling  one, 
plainly, —  as  his  father  set  it  down  in  his  private  diary 
a  little  more  than  three  hundred  years  ago.  The  date 
is  expressed  after  the  rule  of  the  Old  Style ;  now  it 
would  be  Jan.  22,  1588.  Within  the  year  preceding 
the  fated  Queen  of  Scots  had  laid  her  fair  head  upon 
the  block.  The  last  night  of  the  July  following  saw  the 
signal-fires  flaming  all  up  the  coast  that  announced 
the  arrival  of  the  Armada  in  the  Channel.  The 
child  was  born  away  from  home,  under  the  roof,  pro- 
bably, of  his  maternal  grandparents.  Adam  Winthrop 
lived  at  Groton,  contiguous  to  Edwardston,  in  the 
lower  part  of  Suffolk,  sixty  miles  northeast  of  Lon- 
don; was  lord  of  Groton  Manor,  an  estate  granted 
to  his  father  —  also  named  Adam,  as  was  his  father 
before  him  —  by  Henry  VIII.  at  the  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries. 


THE  COMING  MAN  13 

These  Suffolk  Winthrops  were  a  family  of  substance 
and  honourable  repute  for  several  generations  anterior 
to  that  in  which  this  history  arises  \  of  whom  much 
might  be  told,  had  we  time,  to  show,  in  the  lineage  of 
the  man  we  are  to  speak  of,  the  preparation  of  his 
character  and  his  career. 

Adam  Winthrop  (3d)  died  in  1623  j  Anne  Browne, 
his  wife,  in  1629,  only  a  year  before  her  son  embarked 
for  America.  Their  tomb  is  still  to  be  seen  in 
Groton  churchyard.  The  time-blurred  Latin  inscrip- 
tion ends  with  — 

BEATI  .  SUNT  .  PACIFICI  .  NAM  .  II  .  DEI  .  FILII 
VOCABUNTUR. 

Ere  our  tale  is  concluded,  we  shall  find  reason  to 
judge  that  the  same  Beatitude  was  part  of  the  in- 
heritance they  bequeathed. 

Of  John  Winthrop's  boyhood  nothing  whatsoever, 
except  his  own  Later  mention  of  a  juvenile  peccadillo, 
—  which,  on  the  whole,  we  are  glad  to  hear  of,  —  and 
of  his  religious  state  at  the  ages  of  ten  and  twelve,  is 
at  this  time  discoverable.  Of  the  kind  of  lad  he  was, 
of  his  sports,  of  how  and  where  he  was  schooled,  not 
even  Adam  Winthrop's  gossiping  and  very  miscella- 
neous diary  affords  a  hint.  If  it  be  supposed  that 
during  this  period  he  remained  at  his  father's  house 
amid  the  quiet  Suffolk  landscapes,  he  must  have  seen 
and  heard  much  in  the  company  which  the  abound- 
ing hospitalities  of  Groton  Manor  brought  thither,  to 
form   his   mind   and   induce  that  reflectiveness  and 


14  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

that   quickening  of  the   spiritual  nature  which  were 
presently  manifest  in  him. 

Inhabiting  the  East  Anglian  section  of  England, 
—  which  was  the  cradle  of  Puritanism ;  which  con- 
tributed its  supreme  hero,  Oliver  the  Protector ;  on 
the  western  border  of  which  sat  Cambridge  University, 
its  nursing  mother,  —  the  Winthrops  were  of  the  ori- 
ginal Puritan  faith  and  fellowship,  and  it  was  in  a 
Puritan  atmosphere  that  John  Winthrop  first  breathed 
the  breath  of  life.  His  boyhood  proper  was  brief,  for 
in  December,  1602,  he  matriculated  at  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  —  at  a  surprisingly  early  age  even  for  that 
day,  for  he  had  not  yet  completed  his  fourteenth  year. 
His  university  course,  however,  was  soon  interrupted 
and  prematurely  terminated  by  a  fact  still  more  sur- 
prising; namely,  his  marriage  in  April,  1604,  which 
took  place  with  the  consent,  as  we  are  expressly  assured, 
of  all  parties  concerned,  he  being  not  much  past  seven- 
teen, —  or,  precisely,  as  Adam  Winthrop  figures  it  in 
his  diary  (with  paternal  pride,  one  fancies),  seventeen 
years  three  months  and  four  days.  He  was  but  a 
month  over  eighteen  when  his  oldest  son,  John  Win- 
throp, Jr.,  future  governor  of  Connecticut,  was  born. 
So  he  missed  his  degree.  His  principal  biographer,  as 
we  learn  from  himself,1  formerly  queried  for  a  time, 
while  examining  Winthrop's  correspondence,  if  a  re- 
mark in  a  letter  of  1627,  "  I  purpose  to  send  up  ^10 
for  my  A.  B.,"  might  not,  in  spite  of  the  wrong  order  of 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  by  Robert  C.  Winthrop, 
vol.  i.  p.  213  (note). 


THE   COMING  MAN.  15 

the  initials,  refer  to  the  supplying  of  that  deficiency ; 
but  the  matter  was  solved  by  its  coming  to  light  in 
another  letter  that  the  "A.  B."  stood  for  a  certain 
Aunt  Branch,  otherwise  unknown  to  history. 

The  young  woman  (she  was  four  years  his  senior) 
who  thus  changed  John  Winthrop's  plan,  —  and 
here  again  whatever  folly  under  influence  of  youthful 
passion  he  may  have  been  chargeable  with  in  the 
case  is  rather  gratifying  to  us  than  the  reverse,  —  was 
Mary  Forth,  daughter  of  an  ancient  and  distinguished 
family  in  Essex,  who  brought  him  "  a  large  portion 
of  outward  estate."  Of  the  six  children  she  bore 
him,  four  grew  up,  —  John,  Henry,  Forth,  and  Mary 
who  became  the  wife  of  Thomas  Dudley's  son  in 
Massachusetts. 

The  record  of  Winthrop's  outward  life  for  a  number 
of  years  succeeding  his  marriage  is  very  scanty.  He 
pursued  the  practice  of  the  law;  was  made  (says 
Cotton  Mather)  justice  of  the  peace  at  the  age  of 
eighteen.  Part  of  the  time  he  resided  at  Great 
Stambridge,  Essex,  the  home  of  his  wife,  though  he 
"  kept  his  first  court  "  in  Groton  in  October,  1609, — 
which  seems  to  imply  that  he  became  lord  of  the 
manor  on  attaining  his  majority. 

But  of  his  inward  life  we  have  a  full  account.  It  is 
minutely  described  in  a  remarkable  journal  of  his 
soul,  called  by  him  "  Experiencia,"  which  he  began 
in  1606  and  continued  till  1628;  is  rehearsed  also 
in  another  spiritual  autobiography  called  u  Christian 
Experience,"  written  in  later  years  in  New  England. 
Though  in  the  case  of  all  such  self-revelations  of  the 


1 6  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

Puritan  religious  stamp  we  expect  to  find  the  abase- 
ments and  conflicts  of  the  penitent  the  emphatic 
feature,  these  private  disclosures  of  Winthrop  are 
unusually  marked  thereby. 

The  "Christian  Experience,"  drawn  up  in  New 
England  when  he  was  fifty  years  old,  opens  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

In  my  youth  I  was  very  lewdly  disposed  ;  inclining 
unto  and  attempting  (so  far  as  my  heart  enabled  me)  all 
kinds  of  wickedness,  except  swearing  and  scorning  reli- 
gion, which  I  had  no  temptation  unto  in  regard  Of  my 
education." 

Having  then  spoken  of  a  certain  "  savour  of  reli- 
gion "  which  arose  in  him  subsequently,  namely,  when 
he  was  twelve,  —  but  polluted  with  his  conceit  of  it, 
as  he  recalls,  —  he  proceeds  :  — 

"  Yet  I  was  still  very  wild  and  dissolute  ;  and,  as  years 
came  on,  my  lusts  grew  stronger,  but  yet  under  some  re- 
straint of  my  natural  reason,  whereby  I  had  that  command 
of  myself,  that  I  could  turn  into  any  form.  I  would,  as 
occasion  required,  write  letters,  &c,  of  mere  vanity  ;  and, 
if  occasion  was,  I  could  write  savoury  and  godly  counsel." 

Presently  his  state  somewhat  improved  :  — 

"  About  fourteen  years  of  age,  being  in  Cambridge,  I 
fell  into  a  lingering  fever,  which  took  away  the  comforts 
of  my  life  :  for,  being  there  neglected  and  despised,  I 
went  up  and  down  mourning  with  myself  ;  and,  being 
deprived  of  my  youthful  joys,  I  betook  myself  to  God, 
whom  I  did  believe  to  be  very  good  and  merciful,  and 
would  welcome  any  that  would  come  to  him,  especially 
such  a  young  soul,  and  so  well  qualified  as  I  took  myself 
to  be  ;  so  as  I  took  pleasure  in  drawing  near  to  him." 


THE   COMING  MAN  17 

1 

Still,  as  he  sees  looking  back,  the  vice  of  self- 
esteem  infested  him.  But  better  things  were  near. 
At  eighteen,  "being  a  man  in  stature  and  under- 
standing, and  lately  married,"  he  underwent,  not 
without  turmoil,  the  crisis  of  conversion. 

"  Now  came  I  to  some  peace  and  comfort  in  God  and 
in  his  wayes  :  my  chief  delight  was  therein.  I  loved  a 
Christian,  and  the  very  ground  hee  went  upon.  I  honoured 
a  faithful  minister  in  my  heart,  and  could  have  kissed  his 
feet.  Now  I  grew  full  of  zeal  (which  outranne  my  knowl- 
edge, and  carried  mee  sometimes  beyond  my  calling), 
and  very  liberall  to  any  good  work.  I  had_anjaasatiable 
thirst  after  the  word  of  God  ;  and  could  not  misse  a  good 
sermon,  though  many  miles  off,  especially  of  such  as  did 
search  deep  into  the  conscience." 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  earlier  "  Experiencia  " 
takes  up  the  story,  starting  off  thus  :  — 

"Worldly  cares  thoughe  not  in  any  grosse  manner  out- 
wardly, yet  seacreatly,  togither  wlh  a  seacret  desire  after 
plesures  &  itchinge  after  libertie  &  unlawfull  delightes, 
had  brought  me  to  waxe  wearie  of  good  duties  and  so 
to  forsake  my  first  love,  whence  came  muche  troble  & 
danger." 

Which  represents  in  a  general  way  the  theme  of 
the  whole,  as  in  its  enlargement  it  extends  over  the 
space  of  the  score  of  years  covered  by  it.  He  has 
much  to  say  of  his  carnal  proclivities,  temptations, 
downfalls ;  but  when  he  comes  to  specify  his  trans- 
gressions, beyond  such  faults  as  pride,  unthankfulness, 
vanity  of  mind,  love  of  this  world,  he  alleges  nothing 
against  himself  more  serious  in  the  concrete  than  fits 

2 


1 8  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

of  impatience,  sitting  up  too  late  nights,  eating  more 
than  he  ought,  overmuch  gunning  (needing  reform, 
though  he  owns  that  his  luck  as  a  sportsman  is 
habitually  but  small)  ;  the  worst,  a  slighting  perform- 
ance of  the  duty  of  conducting  family  worship.  Of 
the  period  of  his  young  manhood,  by  his  confession 
so  sadly  blemished  with  lapses  from  grace,  what 
Cotton  Mather  has  learned  is,  that  'Ihe  had  so 
bound  himself  to  the  behaviour  of  a  christian  as 
to  become  exemplary  for  a  conformity  to  the  laws 
of  Christianity,"  —  which  without  question  indicates 
the  character  he  bore  in  the  eyes  of  his  cotempo- 
raries.  Nevertheless,  his  own  tale  is  true  enough, 
no  doubt,  and  moves  in  the  field  of  most  genuine 
realities.  It  reveals  a^jmnd  saturated  with  the 
Bible,  and  accompanied  by  the  vision  of  "  superior 
beings  and  eternal  interests."  It  is  the  transcript  of 
the  mutations,  the  ups  and  downs,  the  eclipses  and 
new  irradiations,  the  alternate  fainting  and  strength- 
ening, dryness  and  refreshing,  which  ever  in  this 
world  attend  the  earnest  aim  of  living  after  the 
highest  moral  ideal;  andjt  breathes  the  air  of  en- 
tire sincerity  on  every  page.  It  registers  his  dejections 
and  his  upliftings,  his  terrors  and  his  ecstasies.  Now 
it  is  "  Avoyd  Sathan  !  "  with  him ;  and  now,  "  O  my 
Lord,  my  love,  how  wholly  delectable  art  Thou  ! " 
It  contains  —  particularly  in  the  earlier  portion  — 
memoranda  of  his  successive  new  formal  consecra- 
tions, vows,  resolutions,  covenants  (too  many  of 
them  he  made,  more  than  were  good  for  him,  he 
thinks  afterward),  his  exercises  under  the  dealing  of 


THE.  COMING  MAN  19 

Providence ;  with  many  deep-hearted  divine  medi- 
tations, and  here  and  there  acute  discriminating 
observations  upon  himself  as  a  person  whom,  though 
a  cunning  dissembler,  he  was  learning  to  penetrate. 
It  is  excellently  well  written,  with  pith  and  grace 
of  diction,  and  is  thoroughly  interesting  to  read 
throughout.  But  it  attends  to  one  thing  only.  As 
in  the  case  of  some  like  journals  that  were  kept  in 
New  England  a  century  and  a  half  later,  in  the  times 
of  the  Revolution,  there  is,  beyond  the  merest  hint 
now  and  then,  nothing  to  denote  his  concern  in  the 
public  movements  and  events  with  which  the  while 
the  land  was  in  commotion.  Yet  it  was  impossible 
that  the  unremitting  fierce  contention  of  People  and 
Crown  in  those  years  of  James  and  his  Buckingham, 
when  the  English  heritage  of  freedom  seemed  likely 
to  be  lost,  was  not  a  concern  of  immense  magnitude 
to  the  serious  young  Puritan  squire  of  Suffolk,  —  as 
the  issue  to  which  it  finally  determined  him  proved 
it  to  have  been. 

The  twenty-five  years  from  1604,  when  Winthrop 
assumed  the  duties  of  manhood,  to  1629,  when  he 
resolved  on  emigrating  to  Massachusetts,  were  a  pe- 
riod in  England  during  which  the  comparative  quiet 
and  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  toleration  between 
parties,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  which  marked 
the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  —  whereof  Bacon  and 
Richard  Hooker  may  be  considered  exponents, — 
were  succeeded  by  the  rekindling  of  all  the  elements 
of  strife,  to  blaze  higher  and  ever  higher  till  mounting 
to  the  catastrophe  of  the  Revolution. 


20  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

To  name  in  the  way  of  barest  index  —  more  we 
have  not  room  for  now  —  the  representative  con- 
troversies and  events  which  remain  the  salient  me- 
morials of  that  quarter-century,  is  to  suggest  the 
character  and  the  fortunes  of  the  causes  whose 
conflict,  not  wholly  on  English  soil,  it  witnessed. 
Gunpowder  Plot ;  Breach  of  King  and  Commons ; 
Royal  Impositions ;  Sale  of  Monopolies ;  Sale  of 
Offices ;  Great  Contract ;  Three  Hundred  Ministers 
Deprived ;  Spanish  Marriage  Question ;  Sacrifice  of 
Raleigh  ;  Bohemian  War ;  Revival  of  Impeachments ; 
Abortion  of  Cadiz  j  Loss  of  the  Palatinate  ;  Question 
of  French  Marriage ;  Question  of  Tonnage  and 
Poundage  ;  War  with  France  ;  Forced  Loans  ;  Abor- 
tion of  Rochelle  ;  Petition  of  Right ;  Breach  of  New 
King  and  Commons;  Imprisonment  of  Sir  John 
Eliot,  —  these,  we  say,  may  serve  as  indicia  to  de- 
note the  contents  of  that  chapter  of  English  history 
which  Winthrop,  while  advancing  from  youth  to  the 
maturity  of  mid-manhood,  saw  enacted.  The  drift  of 
all  was  to  the  increase  of  the  burdens  of  the  people, 
and  to  the  darkening  of  the  prospects  of  Puritanism. 
Worse,  indeed,  was  in  store.  Not  yet  had"  Charles 
filled  up,  as  he  would  go  on  to  do,  the  measure  of  his 
father's  and  his  own  offence  against  the  nation.  Nor 
was  Laud  for  three  years  yet  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, though  as  Bishop  of  London  he  was  subterra- 
neously  pushing  the  policy  which  ripened  into  the 
Reign  of  Thorough  when  his  opportunity  came.  But 
the  times  were  very  evil.  England  aside,  the  situ- 
ation for  Protestantism  was  waxing  desperate.  By 
the  fall  of  Rochelle  the  Huguenot  cause  was  lost  in 


THE  COMING  MAN  21 

France.  All  North  Germany  lay  torn  and  bleeding 
under  the  feet  of  Wallenstein  and  Tilly.  To  some 
watchers  —  Winthrop  one  of  them  —  there  was  at 
home  and  abroad  an  outlook  only  of  ruin. 

While  he  lived  in  the  breath  of  all  that  tempest,  to 
what  extent  or  in  what  manner  he  participated  in  it 
has  passed  out  of  knowledge.  His  "  Experiencia,"  as 
we  have  remarked,  supplies  next  to  no  information 
on  the  point;  his  letters  very  little,  not  much  more 
than  is  to  be  gathered  from  casual  references  to 
current  news, —  assembling  of  Parliament ;  ending  of 
Spanish  Match  treaty ;  "  newes  from  Bohemia  is  very 
baddj"  "the  Duke  is  gone  to  Portsmouth;"  "2  or 
3  Londoners  coinitted  aboute  the  Loane,"  —  mere 
references,  usually  without  comment,  yet  with  impli- 
cation of  his  sympathies.  His  only  correspondence 
of  the  period  that  has  come  to  light,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  is  that  of  a  domestic  nature,  —  mostly 
letters  written  during  business  sojourns  in  London, 
to  his  wife,  or  to  his  young  sons  away  from  home, 
in  which  naturally  he  would  not  discuss  themes 
of  church  and  state.  His  other  correspondence, 
which  one  must  think  was  copious,  is  irrecoverably 
lost. 

But  there  are  two  facts  of  record  to  be  adduced  that 
carry  with  them  the  inference  that  he  was  on  terms  of 
personal  acquaintance  and  friendship  with  the  chiefs 
of  the  Puritan  party,  and  in  their  councils.  One  is, 
that  Isaac  Johnson,  a  foremost  adventurer  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  Company,  the  wealthiest  of  them  all, 
Earl  of  Lincoln's  son-in-law,  in  a  will  he  made  before 


22  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

quitting  England,  named  John  Winthrop  joint  exec- 
utor of  his  estate  with  John  Hampden,  —  which  proves 
his  intimacy  with  both,  and  leaves  no  doubt  of  their 
intimacy  with  each  other.  The  other  is,  that  Sir  John 
Eliot,  while  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  where  he  was, 
alas,  to  die,  had  with  him  there  a  notable  writing  of 
Winthrop's,  —  to  be  hereafter  spoken  of,  —  relative 
to  the  Emigration  Enterprise;  and  that  he  corre- 
sponded with  John  Hampden  about  it.  Which  not 
only  raises  a  strong  presumption  that  Eliot  and  Win- 
throp knew  each  other,  but  also  makes  it  a  reasonable 
conjecture  that  Eliot  and  Hampden  partook  Win- 
throp's judgment  of  the  inauspicious  look  of  things  in 
England,  and  had  thoughts  of  themselves  leaving  it 
behind.  At  any  rate,  that  ili-omened  aspect  seems  to 
have  been  the  decisive  consideration  in  the  case  with 
Winthrop  He  saw  only  more  trouble  ahead.  He 
was  not  in  the  least  a  timid  man ;  of  an  high-hearted, 
virile  courage,  rather;  full  of  the  spirit  of  an  uncon- 
querable fortitude,  —  the  years  to  come  were  abun- 
dantly to  demonstrate  that,  —  but  by  his  make  he 
was  not  belligerent.  The  element  of  strife  was  un- 
congenial to  his  nature  ;  by  all  means  not  to  be  lived 
in,  were  it  avoidable ;  and  that,  as  it  bore  upon  the 
question,  at  such  a  juncture,  of  his  staying  in  Eng- 
land or  departing  from  it,  was  probably  the  deter- 
mining factor.  Whether  or  not  America  proved  a 
land  of  peace  to  him  will  appear  further  on. 

But  before  we  proceed  to  the  subject  of  his  emi- 
gration thither,  some  further  note  is  due,  such  as  the 
scarcity  of  the  authentic  data  permits,  of  his  private 


THE   COMING  MAN  23 

employments  and  happenings  in  those  years,  from 
1604  to  1629,  we  are  now  touching  upon.  They 
brought  him  many  changes,  domestic  and  other. 

With  Mary  Forth,  the  wife  of  his  youth,  dimly 
shadowed  to  us  as  a  woman  of  still  ways,  ever 
dutiful  as  modest,  Winthrop  lived  eleven  happy 
years,  till  she  was  parted  from  him  by  her  death 
in    16 15. 

He  was  shortly  married  again,  to  Thomasine  Clop- 
ton,  of  a  neighbouring  family  of  distinction  in  Suf- 
folk, to  which  belonged  that  Sir  Hugh  Clopton  of 
Stratford-upon-Avon,  the  appalling  fate  of  whose 
daughter,  entombed  alive  there  in  the  Great  Plague, 
Shakspeare  is  surmised  to  have  turned  to  account  in 
"  Romeo  and  Juliet." 

The  term  of  this  union  was  sadly  brief.  Just  after 
the  close  of  its  first  year  the  new  wife  died  in  child- 
bed, and  her  child  with  her,  leaving  Winthrop,  not 
yet  twenty-nine  years  old,  the  second  time  a  widower. 
Nothing  that  he  ever  wrote  is  to  this  day  more  mov- 
ing to  read  than  the  long,  broken-hearted  rehearsal, 
in  his  "  Experiencia,"  of  her  last  sickness,  in  which, 
.with  many  exquisite  touches  of  pathos,  he  describes  its 
alternations  of  hope  and  fear,  the  sweet,  submissive 
patience  with  which  its  sufferings — aggravated,  poor 
thing  !  by  the  horrible  medical  practice  of  the  time  — 
were  endured,  and  the  tender  outgoings  of  affection 
in  which  her  gentle  spirit  passed  away.  A  bitter, 
desolating  stroke  this  was  to  him,  quite  turning  earth 
to  emptiness  for  a  while,  driving  him  more  than  ever 
to  thoughts  of  religion. 


24  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

In  his  first  grief  he  even  contemplates  the  aban- 
donment of  secular  pursuits  altogether,  to  devote  the 
rest  of  his  life  to  the  service  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry ;  but  on  examination  finds  such  not  to  be  his 
calling.  His  journal  shows  that  while  he  went  punc- 
tually about  his  duties  as  lawyer  and  magistrate,  this 
was  a  season  of  thick  weather  with  him  in  his  soul ; 
clouds  much  prevailing ;  the  infernal  powers  press- 
ing him  sore,  and  though  repulsed,  persistent  to 
return. 

It  was  under  these  troubled  skies  that  the  light 
of  Margaret  Tyndal  rose  upon  him,  —  light  clear- 
shining,  benignant,  steady,  destined  to  attend  his  life- 
pilgrimage  through  many  still  darker  passages  and 
almost  to  its  close. 

The  daughter  of  Sir  John  Tyndal,  Knight,  of  Essex, 
she  was  a  rarely  perfect  example  of  that  type  of 
womanhood  which,  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say, 
is  universally  conceded  to  be  among  the  fairest 
products  of  our  English  civilization,  —  the  Puritan 
maiden.  She  became  Winthrop's  third  wife  in  1618, 
not — as  transpires  in  one  of  his  ante-nuptial  letters 
to  her,  a  composition  so  quaint  and  delightful  that  it 
is  a  hardship  to  omit  it  here,  but  it  is  copious,  and 
incapable  of  exhibition  by  specimen  —  without  op- 
position from  her  family,  on  the  score,  as  is  hinted, 
of  his  inequality  in  fortune  to  such  a  match.  But 
Margaret  was  on  his  side,  even  when  "myselfe  too 
cowardly  &  unkindly  ioyned  armes  wth  thine  opposers 
against  thee,"  and  won  the  cause  for  them  both. 
With  which  upshot  it  seems  the  Tyndals  were  soon 


THE   COMING  MAN.  25 

well  content,  for  Winthrop  had  subsequently  no 
stancher  friends. 

Of  the  eight  children  that  were  the  fruit  of  this 
marriage,  —  six  sons  and  two  daughters,  —  four  (Ste- 
phen, Adam,  Deane,  Samuel)  reached  maturity,  and 
came  to  New  England ;  note  of  whose  history,  since 
it  must  be  the  briefest,  it  will  be  as  convenient  to 
insert  here  as  anywhere. 

Stephen  served  the  Massachusetts  Colony  in  im- 
portant offices,  but  returned  to  the  old  country  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  where  he  was  one  of  Crom- 
well's colonels  and  member  of  Parliament.  Adam 
died  at  Boston  in  early  manhood.  John  Winthrop, 
LL.D.,  whose  long  and  distinguished  service  of 
Harvard  University,  in  the  chair  of  Mathematics  and 
Natural  Philosophy,  terminated  during  our  War  of 
Independence,  was  his  grandson.  Deane  lived  in 
honour  in  the  colony  to  an  advanced  age.  From  him 
the  town  of  Winthrop,  where  his  residence  was,  takes 
its  name.  Samuel  ultimately  settled  in  the  island  of 
Antigua,  where  he  was  deputy-governor.  The  late 
Lord  Lyons,  British  minister  to  the  United  States  dur- 
ing our  civil  war,  was  his  descendant,  as  is  the  present 
Duke  of  Newcastle. 

While  of  the  first  decade  of  Winthrop's  manhood 
the  record,  as  we  have  said,  is  very  slight,  thence 
onward,  from  his  letters  principally,  its  occupations 
and  main  incidents  are  traceable.  He  passed  much 
of  his  time  in  London  and  on  circuit,  on  his  profes- 
sional business,  which  was  growing  and  profitable. 
His  clientage  and  his  gains  were  by  and  by  increased 


26  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

by  his  appointment  (date  uncertain,  but  about  1623) 
to  an  attorneyship  in  the  important  Court  of  Wards 
and  Liveries,  —  a  court  somewhat  answerable  in  its 
functions  to  our  Probate  Courts.  His  advancement 
to  this  office  and  his  deprival  of  it  later,  in  1629, 
pretty  certainly  indicate  his  recognized  political  con- 
sequence; quite  certainly  his  excellent  standing  in 
his  profession.  He  was  also  employed  in  the  draft- 
ing of  parliamentary  bills,  —  then  a  lucrative  branch 
of  legal  work,  since  become  more  so.  Between 
these  various  concerns  and  the  care  of  his  estate, 
together  with  his  magisterial  and  other  duties  as 
lord  of  Groton  Manor,  he  led  an  extremely  busy 
life,  and  he  prospered  exceedingly. 

In  16 18,  when  he  married  Margaret  Tyndal,  his 
assured  annual  income,  so  he  told  her,  was  eighty 
pounds,  —  a  competence  for  those  times,  though  a 
modest  one,  equivalent  to  three  or  four  times  that 
sum  now.  In  1629  it  had  risen  to  seven  hundred 
pounds,  or  thereabouts,  and  he  was  a  wealthy  man. 

Meanwhile  his  family  was  growing  in  number  and 
growing  up ;  his  older  sons  verging  on  manhood. 

John,  Jr.,  in  1622,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  entered 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  being  sent  thither  partly, 
it  would  seem,  for  economy,  though  on  a  yearly 
allowance  of  thirty  pounds,  and  more  "  if  occasion 
be,"  —  well  toward  half  his  father's  income  four  years 
earlier,  —  partly  for  the  advantage  of  domicile  with 
godly  kinsfolk  residing  there ;  the  Downings,  parents 
of  Sir  George  Downing  to  be  mentioned  hereafter. 

The  best  of  sons  was  John,  Jr.,  always,  in  whom 


THE   COMING  MAN.  27 

his  father  delighted ;  whose  letters  to  him  at  college 
are  pleasant  reading,  —  plenty  of  cheerful,  good 
advice  in  them,  garnished  with  Latin  and  sweetened 
with  a  tone  of  unmistakable  pride  and  fondness. 
Pleasant  reading,  too,  are  the  letters  the  collegian 
gets  from  Forth,  some  years  his  junior,  with  their 
ceremonious  prefaces,  like  the  following :  — 

To  his  most  lovinge  Brother  Mr  John  Winthroppe  at  Trinitie 
Coll :  neere  Dublin,  give  thes.  Ireland. 

Most  lovinge  brother, —  I  received  youer  letters 
the  16  of  Aprill  whereby  I  perceived  your  great  love  & 
respect  towards  me  which  alwaise  hath  binne  :  I  thank  you 
for  your  good  admonitions  which  you  in  your  letters  sent 
me  for  to  alwaise  goe  on  as  I  haue  begunne  ;  knowinge 
that  althow  the  waye  to  lerninge  seeme  verry  hard  & 
difficult,  yet  the  frute  &  end  is  sweet  &  pleasant.  I  hope 
althow  the  distans  of  place  hath  set  us  one  from  another 
yet  nether  sea  nor  land  nor  anythinge  else  can  part  our 
affections  one  from  the  other:  I  had  an  intention  to  have 
written  to  you  by  one  of  Bury  that  went  over,  but  he 
went  over  so  speedilie  as  I  cold  nott  have  time  to  wright: 
but  having  so  fitt  an  opportunitie  I  will  wright.  I  wold  I 
cold  find  matter  wherein  I  might  expresse  my  mind  to 
you :  for  sich  are  our  sinnes  to  God  as  they  dailie  cry  for 
vengans  uppon  us,  &  so  littell  love  or  charitie  one  to 
another  in  these  daies  as  it  is  Gods  mercy  that  we  are 
nott  consumed. 

Thus  the  lad  of  thirteen  to  his  big  brother,  but 
with  very  natural  boy-talk  and  school-gossip  and 
home-news   (i??ipri?nis,  new  baby)   coming  after. 

It  had  been  expected  that  John,  Jr.,  would  follow 
the  law;   and  after  his  graduation  he  was  admitted 


28  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

to  the  Inner  Temple,  London;  but  before  he  was 
called  to  the  bar,  he  broke  off  his  legal  studies,  for 
no  reason  given,  to  accept  the  place  of  secretary  to 
the  commander  of  one  of  the  king's  ships  about  to 
sail  in  Buckingham's  grand  fleet,  going  to  the  relief 
of  Rochelle.  On  the  return  of  that  ill-starred  expe- 
dition, late  in  1627,  he  was  seriously  of  a  mind  to 
join  a  "religious  company"  soon  to  embark  from 
England,  —  Endicott's  Salem  party,  no  doubt ;  van- 
guard of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony ;  sailed  June 
20,  1628,  —  but  father  not  favouring  the  idea,  John 
gave  it  up,  and  presently  set  out  on  a  long  fourteen 
months'  voyage,  in  which  he  visited  many  strange 
cities  in  many  lands,  —  Constantinople  the  most 
remote,  —  and  during  which  not  a  single  letter  from 
home,  of  the  many  despatched,  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing him,  so  uncertain  were  the  then  existing  means 
of  transmission.  On  setting  foot  again  in  England, 
August,  1629,  he  found,  to  his  utter  astonishment,  his 

family  getting  ready  to  leave  England  forever. 

• 

One  under  strict  compulsion  of  brevity,  like  the 
present  writer,  must  deplore  the  necessity  laid  upon 
him  of  denying  the  space  it  pleads  for  to  the  corre- 
spondence of  Winthrop  and  his  Margaret,  which  is  the 
literary  memorial  of  their  life  together  in  Old  England. 
It  may  all  be  found  in  "The  Life  and  Letters  of  John 
Winthrop,"  by  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  —  in  the  ancient 
spelling  the  larger  portion,  the  rest  left  by  the  editor 
(to  our  regret)  as  modernized  in  a  previous  publica- 
tion,—  where  readers  are  urged  to  look  for  it,  and 


THE   COMING  MAN  29 

prove  for  themselves  its  singular  beauty.  A  mirror  of 
truest  manliness  and  womanliness  it  is  all  through,  and 
brimming  with  various  interest.  The  England  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  urban  and  rural,  is  a  good  deal 
reflected  in  it.  It  antedates  the  era  of  mail  service, 
and  apparently  of  public  conveyance,  between  London 
and  such  a  place  as  Groton.  Letters  pass  to  and  fro 
by  private  messenger,  and  the  lawyer  travels  on  his 
own  horses.  Margaret's  shopping  commissions  are 
not  few,  affording  glimpses  of  London  shops  at  that 
day,  with  goods  and  prices.  Though  sometimes 
lodging  with  a  kinsman,  Winthrop  generally,  it  ap- 
pears, keeps  house  after  a  fashion  in  his  city  chambers  ; 
for  Margaret,  staying  by  at  home,  is  constantly  send- 
ing him  supplies.  —  a  turkey,  "  cupple  of  capons," 
cheese,  puddings,  "syder,"  etc.,  —  and  she  sedulously 
and  particularly  cares  for  his  wardrobe.  It  comes 
out  that  he  was  fond  of  his  pipe ;  also,  that  once,  at 
least,  he  quit  smoking,  like  other  men. 

By  ever  so  many  such  items  and  details  the  curi- 
osity is  charmed,  and  we  are  drawn  into  human  sym- 
pathy with  the  minor  economies  of  these  long- vanished 
lives. 

But  the  principal  grace  of  the  letters  is  the  aroma 
_oT^n^^  and  domestic  piety  which  they  exhale. 
They  are   love    letters   every  one ;    and   the   love   in 


them  lives  in  the  element  of  Christian  faith,  other- 
wise it  could  not  be  so  high  and  pure  a  passion. 
A  few  extracts  only,  dates  omitted  (Margaret's  are 
usually  wanting),  must  suffice  for  a  taste  of  their 
quality. 


30  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

These  from  Winthrop  :  — 

My  most  deare  &  sweet  Spouse,  —  I  received  thy 
kinde  Lettre,  the  true  Image  of  thy  most  lovinge  heart, 
breathinge  out  the  faithfull  desires  of  thy  sweet  sowle, 
towards  him  that  prizeth  thee  above  all  thinges  in  the 
world  :  &  blessed  be  or  good  God  &  heavenly  father,  who 
of  his  rich  mercye  is  pleased  still  to  afforde  us  matter  of 
ioy  &  thankfullnesse  in  the  good  newes  of  each  others 
wellfare,  &  of  those  wch  are  neere  &  deare  unto  us :  our 
onely  care  must  be  how  to  be  answearable  in  or  thank- 
fullnesse &  walkinge  worthy  his  great  mercies. 

My  sweet  Wife, —  I  blesse  the  Lorde  for  his  con- 
tinued blessings  upon  thee  and  or  familye :  &  I  thanke 
thee  for  thy  kinde  lettres ;  But  I  knowe  not  what  to  saye 
for  myselfe  :  I  should  mende  &  growe  a  better  husband, 
havinge  the  helpe  &  example  of  so  good  a  wife,  but  I 
growe  still  worse :  I  was  wonte  heertofore,  when  I  was 
longe  absent,  to  make  some  supplye  wth  volumes  of  Let- 
tres ;  but  I  can  scarce  afforde  thee  a  few  lines :  Well, 
there  is  no  helpe  but  by  enlarginge  thy  patience,  & 
strengtheninge  thy  good  opinion  of  him,  who  loves  thee 
as  his  owne  soule,  &  should  count  it  his  greatest  Afflictio 
to  live  without  thee :  but  because  thou  art  so  deare  to 
him,  he  must  choose  rather  to  leave  thee  for  a  tyme,  than 
to  enioye  thee : 

(From  his  good-by  on  board  ship  about  to  sail 
for  America,  she  staying  a  few  months  behind.  No 
sweeter  valedictory  anywhere  in  the  English  tongue, 
that  we  know  of.) 

"  And  now  (my  sweet  soul)  I  must  once  again  take  my 
last  farewell  of  thee  in  Old  England.  It  goeth  very  near 
to  my  heart  to  leave  thee ;  but  I  know  to  whom  I  have 
committed  thee,  even  to  him  who  loves  thee  much  better 


THE   COMING  MAN  31 

than  any  husband  can,  who  hath  taken  account  of  the 
hairs  of  thy  head,  and  puts  all  thy  tears  in  his  bottle, 
who  can,  and  (if  it  be  for  his  glory)  will  bring  us  together 
again  with  peace  and  comfort.  Oh,  how  it  refresheth  my 
heart,  to  think,  that  I  shall  yet  again  see  thy  sweet  face  in 
the  land  of  the  living  !  —  that  lovely  countenance,  that  I 
have  so  much  delighted  in,  and  beheld  with  so  great  con- 
tent! I  have  hitherto  been  so  taken  up  with  business,  as 
I  could  seldom  look  back  to  my  former  happiness  ;  but 
now,  when  I  shall  be  at  some  leisure,  I  shall  not  avoid 
the  remembrance  of  thee,  nor  the  grief  for  thy  absence. 
Thou  hast  thy  share  with  me,  but  I  hope  the  course  we 
have  agreed  upon  will  be  some  ease  to  us  both.  Mon- 
days and  Fridays,  at  five  of  the  clock  at  night,  we  shall 
meet  in  spirit  till  we  meet  in  person.  Yet,  if  all  these 
hopes  should  fail,  blessed  be  our  God,  that  we  are  assured 
we  shall  meet  one  day,  if  not  as  husband  and  wife,  yet  in 
a  better  condition.  Let  that  stay  and  comfort  thy  heart. 
Neither  can  the  sea  drown  thy  husband,  nor  enemies 
destroy,  nor  any  adversity  deprive  thee  of  thy  husband 
or  children.  Therefore  I  will  only  take  thee  now  and 
my  sweet  children  in  mine  arms,  and  kiss  and  embrace 
you  all,  and  so  leave  you  with  my  God.  Farewell,  fare- 
well.    I  bless  you  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

These  from  Margaret :  — 

My  most  kinde  &  lovinge  Husband,  —  I  did  re- 
ceve  your  most  sweet  Letter  by  my  brother  Goslinge,  and 
doe  prayse  God  for  the  continuance  of  your  health,  and 
the  rest  of  our  frends.  I  thanke  the  Lorde  wee  are  also 
in  health,  and  thinke  longe  for  your  coming  home.  My 
good  husband  yor  love  to  me  doeth  dayly  give  me  cause 
of  comfort,  and  doeth  much  increce  my  love  to  you,  lor 
love  liveth  by  love.  I  ware  worse  than  a  brute  beast  if  I 
should  not  love  and  be  faythfull  to  thee,  who  hath  de- 


32  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

served  so  well  at  my  hands.  I  am  ashamed  and  greved 
with  my  selfe  that  I  have  no  thinge  within  or  without 
worthy  of  thee,  and  yet  it  pleaseth  thee  to  except  of  both 
and  to  rest  contented.  I  had  need  to  amend  my  life  and 
pray  to  God  for  more  grace  that  I  may  not  deceve  you  of 
those  good  hopes  which  you  have  of  me,  —  a  sinfull 
woman,  full  of  infirmyties,  continually  fayleinge  of  what  I 
desire  and  what  I  ought  to  performe  to  the  Lorde  and  thy 
selfe. 

(Winthrop  has  been  suffering  from  a  felon,  which 
explains  her  compassion  in  this  next.) 

LOVINGE    AND     MOST    DEARE     HUSBAND,  —  Now    in 

this  solytary  and  uncomfortable  time  of  your  longe  ab- 
sence, I  have  no  other  meanes  to  shew  my  love  but  in 
theese  poore  fruts  of  my  pen,  with  wch  I  am  not  able  to 
expresse  my  love  as  I  desire,  but  I  shall  endeavor  allwaies 
to  make  my  duty  knowne  to  you  in  some  measure  though 
not  ans wearable  to  your  deserts  and  love  Although  it 
pleseth  God  to  part  us  for  a  time,  I  hope  he  will  bringe 
us  together  againe  and  so  provide  that  we  may  not  be 
often  asunder,  if  it  may  be  for  our  good  and  his  glory ; 
and  now  I  thinke  longe  to  heare  of  thee  and  of  your  safe 
cominge  to  London.  I  will  not  looke  tor  any  longe  letters 
this  terme  because  I  pitty  yor  poore  hande ;  if  I  had  it 
heere  I  would  make  more  of  it  than  ever  I  did,  and  bynde 
it  up  very  softly  for  fear  of  hurting  it.  But  I  doubt  not 
but  you  have  better  helps. 

My  most  sweet  Husband,  —  How  dearly  welcome 
thy  kind  letter  was  to  me,  I  am  not  able  to  express.  The 
sweetness  of  it  did  much  refresh  me.  What  can  be  more 
pleasing  to  a  wife,  than  to  hear  of  the  welfare  of  her  best 
beloved,  and  how  he  is  pleased  with  her  poor  endeavors !  I 
blush  to  hear  myself  commended,  knowing  my  own  wants. 


THE   COMING  MAN  33 

But  it  is  your  love  that  conceives  the  best,  and  makes  all 
things  seem  better  than  they  are.  I  wish  that  I  may  be 
always  pleasing  to  thee,  and  that  those  comforts  we  have 
in  each  other  may  be  daily  increased,  as  far  as  they  be 
pleasing  to  God  I  will  use  that  speech  to  thee,  that 
Abigail  did  to  David,  I  will  be  a  servant  to  wash  the  feet 
of  my  lord.  I  will  do  any  service  wherein  I  may  please 
my  good  husband.  I  confess  I  cannot  do  enough  for 
thee  ;  but  thou  art  pleased  to  accept  the  will  for  the  deed, 
and  rest  contented. 

I  have  many  reasons  to  make  me  love  thee,  whereof 
I  will  name  two :  First,  because  thou  lovest  God ;  and, 
secondly,  because  that  thou  lovest  me.  If  these  two  were 
wanting,  all  the  rest  would  be  eclipsed.  But  I  must  leave 
this  discourse,  and  go  about  my  household  affairs.  I  am 
a  bad  housewife  to  be  so  long  from  them;  but  1  must 
needs  borrow  a  little  time  to  talk  with  thee,  my  sweet 
heart. 

And  so,  while  in  their  public  aspects  the  times  are 
evil  to  the  lord  of  Groton  Manor,  they  enclose  for 
him  in  private  an  experience  even  idyllic  in  its  felicity, 
the  stay  and  solace  of  which  will  pass  with  him  into 
the  strange  days  to  come. 


34  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FAREWELL,    ENGLAND. 
(1629- 1 630.) 

Not  till  Winthrop  is  at  the  point  of  committing 
himself  to  the  venture  of  emigrating  to  Massachusetts 
does  any  intimation  occur  that  such  a  thing  —  that 
thing,  at  all  events  —  is  in  his  mind ;  and  it  is  cer- 
tain that  his  resolution  in  the  case  was  suddenly 
adopted. 

The  thought  of  leaving  unhappy  England,  it  is  true, 
had  forced  itself  upon  him.  As  far  back  as  1623  he 
wrote  to  John,  Jr.,  in  college,  "  I  wish  oft  that  God 
would  open  a  way  to  settle  me  in  Ireland."  That 
impulse  was  transient ;  for  as  late  as  1627  he  seriously 
contemplated  the  removal  of  his  residence  to  London 
or  its  vicinity,  for  the  accommodation  of  his  business. 

But  early  in  1629  we  find  him  saying  in  a  letter  to 
Margaret,  — 

"  My  dear  wife,  I  am  veryly  persuaded,  God  will 
bringe  some  heavye  Affliction  upon  this  lande,  &  that 
speedylye  •  but  be  of  good  comfort.  -  .  .  If  the  Lord 
seeth  it  wilbe  good  for  us,  he  will  provide  a  shelter  &  a 
hidinge  place  for  us  &  others,  as  a  Zoar  for  Lott,  Sareph- 
tah  for  his  prophet." 


FAREWELL,   ENGLAND.  35 

And  again  at  about  the  same  time,  — 

"  Where  we  shall  spende  the  rest  of  or  short  tyme  I 
knowe  not :  the  Lorde,  I  trust,  will  direct  us  in  mercye ; 
my  comfort  is  that  thou  art  willinge  to  be  my  companion 
in  what  place  or  conditio  soevere,  in  weale  or  in  woe." 

From  which  it  is  clear  that  the  possibility,  and  even 
probability,  of  departing  the  country  was  before  him  ; 
yet,  so  far,  nothing  to  show  an  eye  turned  toward 
America. 

The  Pilgrims  had  now  been  nine  years  and  more 
at  Plymouth ;  but  not  a  syllable  to  suggest  that  he  so 
much  as  knew  of  them,  —  though,  of  course,  he  did 
know.  How  son  John's  recent  inclination  to  try 
New  England  was  discouraged  by  him  we  have  seen. 
It  is  to  our  surprise,  therefore,  that  two  months  only 
after  he  writes  the  second  of  the  letters  to  Margaret 
just  quoted  from,  it  transpires  that  his  plan  of  going 
to  Massachusetts  is  completely  determined. 

A  convenient  point  from  which  to  survey  the  cir- 
cumstances attending  the  formation  and  execution  of 
this  plan  is  an  Agreement  to  which,  with  eleven  others, 
—  Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Dudley,  William  Vas- 
sall,  Isaac  Johnson,  John  Humphrey,  Increase  Now- 
ell,  William  Pyncheon,  names  of  most  note  among 
them,  —  he  set  his  hand  August  26,  1629.  The  Cam- 
bridge Agreement  it  is  called,  having  been  signed 
under  the  shadow,  perhaps  within  the  walls,  of  the 
old  University,  —  not  unlikely  in  Forth  Winthrop's 
rooms  in  Emanuel  College,  where  he  was  now  an 
undergraduate.  The  vital  substance  whereof ,  was 
contained  in  these  paragraphs :  — 


36  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

"  It  is  fully  and  faithfully  Agreed  amongst  us,  and 
every  one  of  us  doth  hereby  freely  and  sincerely  promise 
and  bind  himself,  in  the  word  of  a  Christian,  and  in  the 
presence  of  God,  who  is  the  searcher  of  all  hearts,  that 
we  will  so  really  endeavour  the  prosecution  of  this  work, 
as  by  God's  assistance,  we  will  be  ready  in  our  persons, 
and  with  such  of  our  several  families  as  are  to  go  with  us, 
and  such  provision  as  we  are  able  conveniently  to  furnish 
ourselves  withal,  to  embark  for  the  said  Plantation  by  the 
first  of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this  land  as  shall 
be  agreed  upon  by  the  Company,  to  the  end  to  pass  the 
Seas,  (under  God's  protection,)  to  inhabit  and  continue 
in  New  England  :  Provided  always,  that  before  the  last 
of  September  next,  the  whole  Government,  together  with 
the  patent  for  the  said  Plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order 
of  Court,  legally  transferred  and  established  to  remain 
with  us  and  others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the  said 
Plantation." 

To  this  so  solemn  compact,  with  the  proviso 
attached,  —  the  same  to  be  particularly  remarked, 
—  there  were  antecedents,  a  glance  at  which  is 
necessary. 

The  story  of  the  royal  grants  of  American  territory 
to  English  colonists,  from  1606,  when  James  I.,  on 
the  basis  of  Cabot's  discovery,  assumed  jurisdiction 
of  the  entire  Atlantic  coast  from  North  Carolina  to 
Maine,  —  the  whole  named  Virginia,  —  is  quite  too 
long  and  complicated  to  recapitulate  here. 

At  the  stage  of  the  present  history  the  privilege  of 
disposing  of  all  rights  to  the  province  in  which  Massa- 
chusetts was  included,  vested  in  a  corporation  of  forty 
members,  of  which  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  presi- 
dent, styled  "The  Council  for  New-England,"  —  one 


FAREWEL^4g8$$§*y     37 

of  the  monopolies  by  which  James  sought  to  replace 
the  revenues  denied  him  by  parliament. 

It  was  from  this  corporation  that,  in  March,  1628, 
an  association  of  six  gentlemen  —  John  Endicott  the 
best  known  —  secured,  by  aid  of  the  well-disposed 
Earl  of  Warwick,  the  grant  to  a  tract  of  country 
extending  from  three  miles  north  of  the  Merrimack 
River  to  three  miles  south  of  the  Charles  River,  and 
between  those  bounds  westward  to  the  Pacific.  The 
grant  was  in  conflict  with  other  previous  grants  cover- 
ing portions  of  the  same  territory,  about  which  there 
would  be  trouble  by  and  by ;  but  it  proved  the  title 
that  held  good  in  the  event.  The  knowledge  of 
American  geography  was  at  that  time  very  small. 
It  was  commonly  supposed  that  the  Pacific  Ocean 
lay  not  far  beyond  the  Hudson  River,  and  that  New 
England  was  an  island.  It  had  even  been  conjec- 
tured by  some  that  a  route  to  the  East  Indies 
might  be  opened  by  way  of  the  Charles  River  or 
the  Mystic. 

The  prime  mover  in  this  affair  was  the  Rev.  John 
White,  eminent  among  Puritans,  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  Dorchester.  His  most  immediate  object, 
though  he  had  larger  views,  was  the  succour  and  rein- 
forcement of  a  little  company  lodged  on  the  Massa- 
chusetts coast  some  while  before,  in  1623,  for  the 
spiritual  behoof  of  a  fishing-fleet  sent  into  those  parts 
by  merchants  of  Dorchester,  parishioners  of  his,  —  Dor- 
chester Adventurers,  so  called.  The  fishing  enterprise 
having  been  abandoned  for  want  of  success,  a  portion 
of  the  shore  company  had,  at  White's  urgency,  remained 


38  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

behind,  and  were  now  at  Naumkeag  (Salem),  holding 
on  there  in  some  distress,  in  charge  of  Roger  Conant, 
a  seceder  from  Plymouth  Colony.  White,  sharing  the 
opinion  then  gathering  force  in  England,  —  by  this 
time  Charles  was  king,  —  that  many  of  his  sort  would 
soon  be  obliged  to  think  of  betaking  themselves 
abroad,  judged  that  the  little  remnant  at  Salem, 
could  it  be  saved,  might  prove  the  beginning  of 
something  of  consequence.  All  haste  was  made  to 
despatch  Endicott,  who  reached  Salem  with  supplies 
and  a  small  party  in  September,  1628,  superseding 
Conant  in  charge  of  the  settlement,  which  still  counted, 
with  those  he  added  to  it,  no  more  than  fifty  or 
sixty  all  told. 

Meantime  the  chance  opened  by  the  grant  above 
spoken  of  had  attracted  attention  in  important  quar- 
ters. The  original  grantees  were  joined  by  not  a  few 
persons  of  mark,  and  a  more  considerable  project  was 
conceived  among  them.  No  sooner  was  Endicott  off 
than  measures  were  taken  through  which,  with  the 
help  of  friends  at  court,  it  came  about  that  on  the 
4th  of  March  following  (1629)  those  original  gran- 
tees with  twenty  of  their  new  associates  were  by 
royal  patent  constituted  a  body  politic,  entitled  "  The 
Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
in  New  England."  By  the  terms  of  this  patent,  —  as 
shaped,  of  course,  by  the  intending  colonists,  —  the 
government  of  the  corporation  it  created  was  to  be 
administered  by  an  official  board  consisting  of  a 
governor,  a  deputy-governor,  and  eighteen  magistrates 
called  Assistants,  annually  elected  by  all  the  mem- 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  39 

bers.  Once  a  month,  or  oftener,  this  Board  was  to 
meet  for  the  transaction  of  business ;  and  the  whole 
Company  four  times  a  year  in  a  Great  and  General 
Court  of  power  to  admit  new  members  and  to  make 
the  laws  and  ordinances  by  which  the  Company  should 
be  ruled,  "  so  as  such  laws  and  ordinances  be  not 
contrary  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm  of 
England."  How  elastic,  in  the  possible  interpretation 
of  it,  the  condition  defined  in  the  last  clause,  will 
develop  as  we  proceed. 

The  concession  of  so  liberal  a  charter  is  the  more 
remarkable,  if  viewed  in  connection  with  the  circum- 
stance that  only  six  days  after  it  passed  the  seals, 
Charles,  in  hot  anger,  dissolved  his  third  parliament, 
—  parliament  in  hot  anger  too,  —  proclaiming  that 
thenceforth  he  would  rule  without  parliament,  which 
for  the  eleven  years  succeeding  he  did,  if  ruling  it 
could  be  called. 

That  charter  was  to  be,  for  half  a  century  to  come, 
the  peculiar  treasure  of  Massachusetts,  the  sole  instru- 
ment of  her  government,  the  aegis  of  her  liberties ;  to 
be,  moreover,  in  all  future  times  especially  associated 
with  the  memory  of  John  Winthrop.  But  as  yet  no 
Winthrop  appears  on  the  scene.  Several  who  will  be 
among  his  principal  coadjutors  in  the  labour  of  carry- 
ing out  the  scheme  thus  initiated  when  presently  he 
becomes  its  head,  —  his  most  intimate  friends  some 
of  them,  —  are  members  of  the  new  Company ;  but 
his  name  is  not  on  its  list. 

In  its  first  organization  Matthew  Cradock,  mer- 
chant of  London,  was  chosen  governor.     No  time  was 


40  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

lost  in  sending  forward  another  party  to  strengthen 
the  occupation  of  Salem.  Six  vessels  were  fitted  out 
with  all  speed,  which  by  the  end  of  June  added  to 
Endicott's  community  four  hundred  souls,  with  store 
of  cattle,  tools,  and  arms. 

The  leaders  of  this  reinforcement  —  the  larger  part 
"  godly  Christians,"  though  in  fortune  mainly  of  the 
humbler  sort,  and  a  considerable  share  of  them  "  in- 
dented servants  "  under  contract  to  work  out  the  cost 
of  their  transportation  —  were  the  Rev.  Francis  Higgin- 
son,  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  deprived  for  non- 
conformity, and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Skelton,  a  friend  of 
Endicott,  both  men  of  superior  quality. 

And  now,  at  length,  the  New  England  enterprise 
being  advanced  to  this  point,  Winthrop  first  comes 
into  sight  in  connection  with  it.  The  earliest  hint  of 
the  engagement  of  his  interest  in  that  direction  is 
probably  a  note  in  the  "  Experiencia,"  dated  July  28, 
1629,  recording  his  thanks  for  deliverance  from  peril 
of  drowning  in  the  fens  of  Ely  while  riding  with 
his  brother-in-law  Emanuel  Downing  into  Lincoln- 
shire ;  for  in  Lincolnshire  lived  Isaac  Johnson,  Earl 
of  Lincoln's  son-in-law,  as  before  mentioned,  the 
most  prominent  promoter  of  the  enterprise  in  the 
more  important  character  it  had  latterly  assumed. 
Considering  the  moment,  it  is  scarcely  doubtful  that 
the  two  were  going  to  see  him  concerning  that  mat- 
ter. At  any  rate,  not  till  close  about  this  time  is 
Winthrop  discovered  as  identifying  himself  with  the 
project.  Nor,  in  the  light  of  related  facts  and  occur- 
rences, is  it  less  than  obvious  that  it  was  at  the  solici- 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  41 

tation  of  those  already  embarked  in  it  that  he  did  so. 
More  than  that, -there  is  ground  for  thinking  that  to 
secure  him  (and  others  with  him)  the  Company- 
shaped  its  plan  to  meet  his  views  in  an  important 
respect,  namely,  the  location  of  the  government  of 
the  colony  to  be,  —  his  views,  we  say,  speaking  from 
our  subsequent  knowledge. 

It  had  been  managed,  when  the  charter  was  ob- 
tained, that  no  special  place  for  the  meetings  of  the 
Company  was  prescribed  in  it,  —  which  was  unusual. 
Such  patents  were  customarily  kept  in  England,  where 
also  the  corporations  they  created  had  their  legal 
residence  and  seat  of  authority.  And  this,  in  fact, 
had  been  provided  in  the  original  draft  of  the 
Massachusetts  patent ;  but  —  as  we  learn  from  Win- 
throp  in  later  days  —  "  with  much  difficulty  we  gott 
it  abscinded."  "We,"  he  says  historically,  meaning 
the  Company,  of  which  he  himself  had  not  been  a 
member  at  the  time.  Soon  after  the  granting  of  the 
patent  the  question  is  up  with  the  Company,  whether, 
since  the  thing  may  be  done,  it  will  be  advisable  to 
transfer  it,  and  the  administration  under  it,  over  seas, 
with  the  colony  that  is  being  formed.  At  a  meeting 
of  the  Company  in  London,  July  28  (the  very  date 
of  Winthrop's  reference  to  his  late  trip  into  Lincoln- 
shire), Governor  Cradock,  "for  the  advancement  of 
the  Plantation,  the  inducing  and  encouraging  persons 
of  worth  and  quality  to  transplant  themselves  and 
families,  and  for  other  weighty  reasons,"  proposed 
that  that  measure  be  resolved  upon.  A  month  later, 
a  meeting  was  called  "  to  give  answer  to  divers  gen- 


42  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

tlemen  intending  to  go  into  New  England,  whether 
or  no  the  chief  government  of  the  Plantation,  to- 
gether with  the  patent,  should  be  settled  in  New  Eng- 
land or  here."  At  an  adjourned  session  the  next  day 
(August  29),  the  transfer  was,  "after  long  debate," 
declared  the  will  of  the  Company;  and  presently, 
upon  the  advice  of  "learned  counsel"  that  no  valid 
legal  objection  lay  against  it,  was  "  completely  settled 
upon  "  —  with  consequences  of  incomputable  magni- 
tude to  the  history  of  mankind.  For  so  the  charter 
became  the  constitution  of  an  independent,  self- 
governing  commonwealth.  * 

Governor  Cradock's  proposal,  the  record  says, 
was  "conceived  by  himself;"  but  it  is  .sufficiently 
plain  that  there  was  pressure  in  the  case,  and  some 
of  it  from  outside. 

The  circumstance  that  this  decision  followed  so 
immediately  —  the  interval  is  three  days  only  —  upon 
the  Cambridge  Agreement,  inevitably  suggests  a  re- 
lation between  them ;  and  that  the  signers  of  the 
Agreement,  or  a  part  of  them,  were  among  the 
"  divers  gentlemen  "  to  whom  the  decision  gave  an- 
swer. Though  they  speak  of  having  "  engaged " 
themselves  in  the  New  England  enterprise,  not  all 
were  yet  members  of  the  Company.  Some  were, 
and  had  hastened  down  from  Cambridge  to  attend 
the  meetings  of  August  28  and  29,  no  doubt  with 
the  Agreement  in  hand  to  exhibit;  but  the  names 
of  some,  one  of  them  Winthrop,  had  thus  far  not 
appeared  on  the  Company's  record,  —  which  leaves  it 
a  reasonable  judgment  that  his  and  their  actual  en- 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  43 

trance  into  the  Company  was  finally  and  fully  deter- 
mined by  the  action  relative  to  the  transfer  of  the 
charter.     Once   in,  however,  Winthrop,  at  least,  was 
■in  with  all  his  heart. 

Concurrently,  also,  with  his  committal  to  the  great 
venture  there  seems  to  have  been  taken  up  the  idea 
of  an  emigration  not  only  larger  than  had  before  been 
thought  of,  but  weightier  in  its  personnel.  To  this 
idea  he  gave  his  most  earnest  advocacy.  There  were 
soon  passing  from  hand  to  hand  in  Puritan  circles 
copies  of  a  tract  prepared  by  him,  —  the  writing  to 
which  reference  has  been  made  as  read  by  Sir  John 
Eliot  in  the  Tower,1  —  which  is  of  the  greatest  in- 
terest, and  too  important  for  its  revelation  of  his 
thoughts,  and  of  the  thoughts  of  many  like  him  in 
England  at  that  juncture,  to  be  omitted. 

Reasons  to  be  considered  for  iustifieinge  the  undertakeres  of  the 
intended  Plantation  in  New  England,  d^  for  incouraginge 
such  whose  hartes  God  shall  move  to  ioyne  wth  them  in  it. 

I.  It  will  be  a  service  to  the  Church  of  great  conse- 
quence to  carry  the  Gospell  into  those  parts  of  the  world, 
to  helpe  on  the  comminge  of  the  fullnesse  of  the  Gentiles, 
&  to  raise  a  Bulworke  against  the  kingdome  of  Ante- 
Christ  wch  the  Jesuites  labour  to  reare  up  in  those  parts. 

1  Page  22.  The  authorship  of  this  paper  is  not  altogether 
undisputed.  It  has  been  ascribed  to  Francis  Higginson.  But 
after  reading  what  Mr.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  (Life  and  Letters 
of  John  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  pp.  317,  318)  and  Mr.  Thomas  Went- 
worth  Higginson  (Life  of  Francis  Higginson,  Makers  of  America 
Series,  pp.  38,  39)  say  upon  the  question,  few  will  be  likely  to 
regard  it  an  open  one. 


44  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

2.  All  other  churches  of  Europe  are  brought  to  deso- 
lation, &  or  sinnes,  for  wch  the  Lord  beginnes  allreaddy 
to  frowne  upon  us  &  to  cutte  us  short,  doe  threatne  evill 
times  to  be  comminge  upon  us,  &  whoe  knowes,  but  that 
God  hath  provided  this  place  to  be  a  refuge  for  many 
whome  he  meanes  to  save  out  of  the  generall  callamity, 
&  seeinge  the  Church  hath  noe  place  lefte  to  flie  into  but 
the  wildernesse,  what  better  worke  can  there  be,  then  to 
goe  &  provide  tabernacles  &  foode  for  her  against  she 
comes  thether : 

3.  This  Land  growes  weary  of  her  Inhabitants,  soe  as 
man,  whoe  is  the  most  pretious  of  all  creatures,  is  here 
more  vile  &  base  then  the  earth  we  treade  upon,  &  of 
lesse  prise  among  us  then  an  horse  or  a  sheepe  :  masters 
are  forced  by  authority  to  entertaine  servants,  parents  to 
mainetaine  their  owne  children,  all  townes  complaine  of  the 
burthen  of  theire  poore,  though  we  have  taken  up  many 
unnessisarie  yea  unlawfull  trades  to  mainetaine  them,  & 
we  use  the  authorise  of  the  Law  to  hinder  the  increase 
of  or  people,  as  by  urginge  the  Statute  against  Cottages, 
&  inmates,  &  thus  it  is  come  to  passe,  that  children,  ser- 
vants &  neighboures,  especially  if  they  be  poore,  are 
compted  the  greatest  burthens,  wch  if  thinges  weare  right 
would  be  the  cheifest  earthly  blessinges. 

4.  The  whole  earth  is  the  Lords  garden  &  he  hath 
given  it  to  the  Sonnes  of  men  wth  a  gen1  Comission : 
Gen :  1  :  28 :  increace  &  multiplie,  &  replenish  the  earth 
&  subdue  it,  wch  was  againe  renewed  to  Noah  :  the  end 
is  double  &  naturall,  that  man  might  enioy  the  fruits  of 
the  earth,  &  God  might  have  his  due  glory  from  the  crea- 
ture :  why  then  should  we  stand  striving  here  for  places 
of  habitation,  etc,  (many  men  spending  as  much  labour 
&  coste  to  recouer  or  keepe  sometimes  an  acre  or  twoe  of 
Land,  as  would  procure  them  many  &  as  good  or  better 
in  another  Countrie)  &  in  the  meane  time  suffer  a  whole 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  45 

Continent  as  fruitfull  &  convenient  for  the  use  of  man  to 
lie  waste  wthout  any  improvement. 

5.  We  are  growne  to  that  height  of  Intemperance  in  all 
excesse  of  Riott,  as  noe  mans  estate  allmost  will  suffice 
to  keepe  saile  wth  his  aequalls  ;  &  he  who  failes  herein, 
must  liue  in  scorne  &  contempt.  Hence  it  comes  that  all 
artes  &  Trades  are  carried  in  that  deceiptfull  &  unright- 
eous course,  as  it  is  allmost  impossible  for  a  good  & 
upright  man  to  mainetayne  his  charge  &  liue  comfortablie 
in  any  of  them. 

6.  The  ffountaines  of  Learning  &  Religion  are  soe 
corrupted  as  (besides  the  unsupportable  charge  of  there 
education)  most  children  (euen  the  best  witts  &  of  fairest 
hopes)  are  perverted,  corrupted,  &  utterlie  overthrowne 
by  the  multitude  of  evill  examples  &  the  licentious  gou- 
ernmt  of  those  seminaries,  where  men  straine  at  knatts  & 
swallowe  camells,  use  all  seuerity  for  mainetaynance  of 
cappes  &  other  accomplyments,  but  suffer  all  ruffianlike 
fashions  &  disorder  in  manners  to  passe  uncontrolled. 

7.  What  can  be  a  better  worke  &  more  honorable  & 
worthy  a  Christian  then  to  helpe  raise  &  supporte  a  par- 
ticular Church  while  it  is  in  the  Infancy,  &  to  ioyne  his 
forces  wth  such  a  company  of  faithfull  people,  as  by  a 
timely  assistance  may  growe  stronge  &  prosper,  &  for  want 
of  it  may  be  put  to  great  hazard,  if  not  wholly  ruined  •. 

8.  If  any  such  as  are  knowne  to  be  Godly,  &  liue  in 
wealth  and  prosperity  here,  shall  forsake  all  this,  to  ioyne 
themselues  wth  this  Church  &  to  runne  an  hazard  wth 
them  of  an  hard  &  meane  condition,  it  will  be  an  example 
of  great  use  both  for  removinge  the  scandall  of  worldly 
&  sinister  respects  wch  is  cast  upon  the  Adventurers;  to 
give  more  life  to  the  faith  of  Gods  people,  in  their  piaiers 
for  the  Plantation ;  &  to  incorrage  others  to  ioyne  the 
more  willingly  in  it. 

9.  It  appeares  to  be  a  worke  of  God  for  the  good  of  his 


46  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

Church,  in  that  he  hath  disposed  the  hartes  of  soe  many 
of  his  wise  &  faithfull  servants,  both  ministers  &  others, 
not  onely  to  approve  of  the  enterprise  but  to  interest 
themselves  in  it,  some  in  their  persons  &  estates,  other 
by  their  serious  advise  &  helpe  otherwise,  &  all  by  their 
praiers  for  the  wealfare  of  it.  Amos  3 :  the  Lord  revealeth 
his  secreat  to  his  servants  the  prophetts,  it  is  likely  he 
hath  some  great  worke  in  hand  wch  he  hath  revealed  to 
his  prophetts  among  us,  whom  he  hath  stirred  up  to  en- 
courage his  servants  to  this  Plantation,  for  he  doth  not 
use  to  seduce  his  people  by  his  owne  prophetts,  but 
comitte  that  office  to  the  ministrie  of  false  prophetts  & 
lieing  spiritts. 

To  these  Reasons  is  appended  a  supplement  much 
longer  and  still  more  interesting,  but  of  not  so  mate- 
rial  import,  in  which  "  diverse  obiections  wch  have 
been  made  against  this  Plantation,"  are  copiously  ex- 
amined and  answered ;  of  which  we  will  transcribe  the 
heads  only :  — 

"  2.  It  will  be  a  great  wrong  to  or  Churche  &  Countrie 
to  take  awaye  the  good  people,  &  we  shall  lay  it  the  more 
open  to  the  Judgm*  feared. 

"  3  We  have  feared  a  Judgment  a  great  while,  but  yet 
we  are  safe,  it  weare  better  therefore  to  stay  till  it  come, 
&  either  we  may  flie  then,  or  if  we  bee  overtaken  in  it  we 
may  well  content  or  selves  to  suffer  wth  such  a  Church  as 
ours  is. 

11  4.  The  ill  successe  of  other  Plantations  may  tell  us 
what  will  become  of  this. 

*'  5.  It  is  attended  wth  many  &  great  difficulties. 

"6.   It  is  a  worke  above  the  power  of  the  undertakers. 

"7.  The  Countrie  affordes  not  naturall  fortifications. 

"  8.  The  place  affordeth  not  comfortable  meanes  to  the 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  47 

first  planters,  &  or  breedinge  here  at  home  hath  made  us 
unfltte  for  the  hardshippe  we  are  like  to  endure  there. 

"  9.  We  must  looke  to  be  praeserved  by  miracle  if  we 
subsiste,  &  soe  we  shall  tempt  God. 

"  10.  If  it  succeed  ill,  it  will  raise  a  scandall  upon  or 
profession." 

With  what  thorough  scrutiny  on  all  sides  Winthrop 
had  canvassed  the  subject  of  his  course,  and  that  his 
decision  upon  it  was  not  impulsive,  but  circumspect 
and  deliberate  in  the  extreme,  this  document  is  proof. 
Naturally  there  were  not  wanting  those  around  him 
whose  judgment  of  his  duty  was  opposed  to  his, 
and  who  expostulated  with  him  accordingly.  Some 
of  the  Tyndalls  shook  their  heads.  Letters  remain  — 
curiosities  of  orthography;  "anarchy,"  for  example, 
represented  by  "  &rch  "  in  one  —  in  which  his  friend 
Robert  Ryece,  the  distinguished  Suffolk  antiquarian, 
urges  upon  him  the  preponderant  reasons  why  he 
would  better  abide  in  England.  The  nature  of  the 
dissuasions  he  met  is  derivable  from  the  caption  of  a 
briefer  document  from  his  pen  in  those  days  :  "  Some 
Gen1  Conclusions  shewinge  that  persons  of  good  use 
heere  (yea  in  publike  service)  may  be  transplanted 
for  the  furtherance  of  this  plantation  in  N  :  E :  " 
This,  too,  has  an  appendix :  "  Particular  considera- 
tions in  the  case  of  J  :  W  :  "  Of  which,  —  they  are  five 
in  number,  —  the  first,  of  significance  in  explaining  the 
Cambridge  Agreement,  is  this  :  — 

"  It  is  come  to  that  issue  as  (in  all  probabilitye)  the 
wellfare  of  the  Plantation  dependes  upon  his  goeiqge,  for 
divers  of  the  Chiefe  Undertakers  (upon  whom  the  reste 
depende)  will  not  goe  without  him." 


48  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

The  recognition  of  Winthrop's  part  in  bringing  the 
plan  of  the  projected  enterprise  into  the  shape  it  has 
now  taken,  and  the  place  among  his  associates  by 
general  consent  awarded  to  him,  are  at  once  apparent. 
At  a  General  Court  on  the  20th  of  October  (1629), 
Cradock  having  resigned,  he  was  chosen  governor. 
Thenceforward  he  is  manifestly  the  man  of  the  Com- 
pany, and  passes  under  a  weight  of  chief  responsibility 
for  the  conduct  of  its  affairs  that  will  lie  upon  him 
the  rest  of  his  life. 

The  lord  of  Groton  Manor  was  in  his  forty-second 
year  when  thus  called  to  the  helm  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony,  and  in  the  prime  of  his  mature 
manhood.     The  same  day  he  wrote  to  Margaret : 

"  So  it  is  that  it  hath  pleased  the  Lorde  to  call  me  to  a 
further  trust  in  this  businesse  of  the  Plantation,  then 
either  I  expected  or  finde  myselfe  fltt  for,  (beinge  chosen 
by  the  Company  to  be  their  Governor).  The  onely 
thinge  that  I  have  comforte  of  in  it  is,  that  heerby  I  have 
assurance  that  my  charge  is  of  the  Lorde  &  that  he  hath 
called  me  to  this  worke  :  O  that  he  would  give  me  an  heart 
now  to  answeare  his  goodnesse  to  me,  &  the  expectation 
of  his  people  !  I  never  had  more  need  of  prayers,  helpe 
me  (deare  wife)  &  lett  us  sett  or  hearts  to  seeke  the  Lorde, 
&  cleave  to  him  sincearly." 

The  five  months  remaining  before  he  sailed  for 
New  England  were  heaped  with  activities  to  the  new 
governor,  who  about  this  time,  it  is  of  significance  to 
note,  adopted  the  Dove  of  Promise  for  his  private 
seal.  There  was  a  multiplicity  of  business  requiring 
management,  —  difficulties  at  Salem  to  be  resolved  in 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  49 

endless  Company  consultations ;  funds  to  be  raised ; 
ships  to  be  chartered ;  supplies  to  be  gathered ;  min- 
isters and  a  "chirurgeon "  to  be  obtained;  various 
questions  of  adventurers'  interests  to  be  settled ;  ob- 
stacles to  be  surmounted ;  infinite  minor  details  to  be 
adjusted.  Though  there  were  others  to  divide  the 
work  with  him,  —  especially  John,  Jr.,  his  industrious 
adjutant,  —  he  held  the  labouring  oar.  The  disposing 
of  his  private  affairs  —  insecurely,  as  it  turned  out  — 
had  the  while  to  be  attended  to.  It  is  an  amusing 
circumstance  that  in  all  that  rush  and  hurry  he  is 
called  in  for  sympathy  and  counsel  in  two  cases  of 
love  just  then  simultaneously  occurring  in  his  domes- 
tic circle.  His  boy  Forth,  in  a  blushing  but  grandiose 
epistle,  confides  to  him  that  he  is  enamoured  to  the 
matrimonial  pitch,  of  Cousin  Ursula  Sherman ;  and 
his  sister-in-law,  widowed  mother  of  the  same  young 
lady,  wants  his  assistance  in  resolving  her  doubts  of 
the  answer  she  shall  give  a  worthy  gentleman  who  is 
teasing  her  to  marry  him. 

Three  times  only  in  those  months  can  he  contrive 
to  run  home  from  London  on  short  visits  to  his  fam- 
ily, —  once  just  after  he  was  made  governor,  again  at 
Christmas,  and  again  the  last  week  in  February,  to  say 
good-by.  Margaret  is  approaching  her  confinement 
and  will  not  be  able  to  go  with  him ;  but  she  con- 
tinually sends  him  brave,  cheerful  letters,  that  though 
sometimes  they  "  dissolved  my  head  into  tears," 
strongly  stay  up  his  spirit.  Some  wives  of  the  Com- 
pany there  are,  it  appears,  who  are  afraid;  but  not 
she.     She  writes  :  — 

4 


50  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

"  My  good  Husband :  cheare  up  thy  hart  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  Gods  goodnesse  to  us,  &  let  nothinge 
dismay  or  discorage  thee  ;  if  the  Lord  be  with  us  who 
can  be  against  us  :  my  grefe  is  the  feare  of  stayinge 
behinde  thee,  but  I  must  leave  all  to  the  good  providence 
of  God." 

To  which  he  replies  :  — 

"  Blessed  be  God,  who  hath  given  me  a  wife,  who  is 
such  a  helpe  &  incouragem1  to  me  in  this  great  worke, 
wherein  so  many  wives  are  so  great  an  hinderance  to 
theirs  :  I  doubt  not  but  the  Lorde  will  recompence  abun- 
dantly the  faithfullnesse  of  thy  love  &  obedience,  &  for 
my  selfe,  I  shall  ever  be  mindfull  of  thee,  &  carefull  to 
requite  thee." 

At  length  the  task  of  preparation  draws  to  an  end. 
Taking  leave  of  his  household,  —  all  but  Henry,  Ste- 
phen, and  Adam  (little  fellows  the  last  two),  who 
are  going  with  him,  —  and  of  the  graves  of  his  kin- 
dred, Winthrop  returns  once  more  to  London,  and  in 
a  few  days  passes  on  to  Southampton,  where  the  bulk 
of  the  emigration  is  to  embark.  (One  ship-load  of  a 
hundred  and  forty  —  the  West  Country  contingent  — 
sails  from  Plymouth,  and  will  be  off  first.)  Thither 
come  the  East  Country  people,  seven  hundred  in 
number,  to  meet  their  eleven  ships,  the  Pilgrims' 
Mayflower  one  of  them.  Thither  flock  friends 
and  neighbours  to  say  farewell  and  God-speed ; 
among  these  the  Rev.  John  Cotton,  of  Boston  in  Lin- 
colnshire, —  to  be  conspicuous  in  this  history  by  and 
by,  —  who  preaches  to  them  from  2  Sam.  vii.  10: 
"  Moreover  I  will  appoint  a  place  for  my  people  Israel, 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  51 

and  will  plant  them,  that  they  may  dwell  in  a  place  of 
their  own,  and  move  no  more  ;  neither  shall  the  children 
of  wickedness  afflict  them  any  moi'e,  as  before  time" 

At  a  "solemn  feast"  with  his  especial  intimates, 
Winthrop,  essaying  to  speak  a  parting  word,  "  finding 
his  bowels  yearn  within  him,  instead  of  drinking  to 
them,  by  breaking  into  a  flood  of  tears  himself  set 
them  all  a  weeping  with  Paul's  friends,  while  they 
thought  of  seeing  the  faces  of  each  other  no  more  in 
the  land  of  the  living." 

On  the  2 2d  of  March,  1630,  the  four  ships  that  were 
quite  ready,  the  Arbella,  the  Ambrose,  the  Jewel,  the 
Talbot,  received  their  passengers  and  weighed  anchor. 
The  Arbella  had  before  been  the  Eagle,  but  was  now 
gallantly  re-christened  in  honor  of  Lady  Arbella  John- 
son, the  gentlewoman  of  the  exodus.  She  was  admiral 
of  the  fleet  also,  and  carried  the  governor ;  the  Lady 
Arbella  and  her  husband  Isaac  Johnson,  and  Sir  Rich- 
ard Saltonstall,  and  William  Coddington,  —  governor 
of  Rhode  Island  afterward,  —  and  Thomas  Dudley, 
and  George  Phillips  being  among  his  companions  for 
the  voyage.  Ere  the  Channel  was  gained,  however, 
obstinate  contrary  winds  forced  them  to  seek  harbour 
on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  first  at  Cowes,  then  at  Yarmouth  ; 
and  it  was  a  fortnight  before  the  cliffs  of  Cornwall 
faded  from  their  view.  But  they  lived  no  more  in 
England. 

All  the  way  from  home,  from  London,  from  South- 
ampton, from  Cowes  and  from  Yarmouth  waiting  for  the 
wind,  to  the  last  possible  moment,  Winthrop  sent  back 
"Tetters  to  Margaret  pouring  out  his  love  upon  her  in 


52  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

tenderest  endearments  and  benedictions  ("  Mine  own 
Sweet  Self,"  he  calls  her;  again,  "  My  Love,  my  Joy, 
my  faithful  One ;  "  again,  "  Mine  owne,  mine  onely, 
my  Best  Beloved"),  comforting  her  concerning  her- 
self and  concerning  himself  and  her  young  sons  with 
him.  "  Our  boys,"  he  says  at  Cowes,  "  are  well  and 
cheerful,  and  have  no  mind  of  home.  They  lie  both 
with  me,  and  sleep  so  soundly  in  a  rug  (for  we  use 
no  sheets  here)  as  ever  they  did  at  Groton."  Over 
and  over  he  binds  himself  to  keep  their  covenant  of 
a  spiritual  meeting  Monday  and  Friday  evenings. 

In  addition  to  such  private  messages  the  departing 
colonists  sent  ashore  at  this  time,  during  the  detention 
at  Yarmouth,  a  remarkable  and  affecting  public  appeal 
entitled  "The  Humble  Request  of  His  Majesty's  Loyall 
Subjects,  the  Governor  and  the  Company  late  gone 
for  New  England  ;  to  the  rest  of  their  Brethren  in  and 
of  the  Church  of  England ;  for  the  obtaining  of  their 
Prayers,  and  the  removal  of  suspicions,  and  miscon- 
structions of  their  Intentions ; "  the  character  and 
substance  of  which  the  following  extract  will  suffi- 
ciently reveal :  — 

Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren,  —  The  general 
rumour  of  this  solemn  enterprise,  wherein  ourselves  with 
others,  through  the  providence  of  the  Almighty,  are  en- 
gaged, as  it  may  spare  us  the  labour  of  imparting  our 
occasion  unto  you,  so  it  gives  us  the  more  encouragement 
to  strengthen  ourselves  by  the  procurement  of  the  pray- 
ers and  blessings  of  the  Lord's  faithful  servants.  For 
which  end  we  are  bold  to  have  recourse  unto  you,  as 
those  whom  God  hath  placed  nearest  his  throne  of  mercy ; 
which  as  it  affords  you  the  more  opportunity,  so  it  im- 


FAREWELL,  ENGLAND.  53 

poseth  the  greater  bond  upon  you  to  intercede  for  his 
people  in  all  their  straits.  We  beseech  you,  therefore,  by 
the  mercies  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  consider  us  as  your 
brethren,  standing  in  very  great  need  of  your  help,  and 
earnestly  imploring  it.  And  howsoever  your  charity  may 
have  met  with  some  occasion  of  discouragement  through 
the  misreport  of  our  intentions,  or  through  the  disaffec- 
tion or  indiscretion  of  some  of  us,  or  rather  amongst  us 
(for  we  are  not  of  those  that  dream  of  perfection  in  this 
world),  yet  we  desire  you  would  be  pleased  to  take  notice 
of  the  principals  and  body  of  our  Company,  as  those  who 
esteem  it  our  honour  to  call  the  Church  of  England,  from 
whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother;  and  cannot  part  from 
our  native  Country,  where  she  specially  resideth,  without 
much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes,  ever 
acknowledging  that  such  hope  and  part  as  we  have  ob- 
tained in  the  common  salvation  we  have  received  in  her 
bosom,  and  sucked  it  from  her  breasts. 

We  leave  it  not,  therefore,  as  loathing  that  milk  where- 
with we  were  nourished  there  ;  but,  blessing  God  for  the 
parentage  and  education,  as  members  of  the  same  body, 
shall  always  rejoice  in  her  good,  and  unfeignedly  grieve 
for  any  sorrow  that  shall  ever  betide  her,  and  while  we 
have  breath,  sincerely  desire  and  endeavour  the  continu- 
ance and  abundance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlargement 
of  her  bounds  in  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus. 

What  we  entreat  of  you  that  are  the  ministers  of  God, 
that  we  also  crave  at  the  hands  of  all  the  rest  of  our 
brethren,  that  they  would  at  no  time  forget  us  in  their 
private  solicitations  at  the  throne  of  grace. 

What  goodness  you  shall  extend  to  us  in  this  or  any 
other  Christian  kindness,  we,  your  brethren  in  Christ 
Jesus,  shall  labour  to  repay  in  what  duty  we  are  or  shall  be 


54  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

able  to  perform;,  promising,  so  far  as  God  shall  enable  us, 
to  give  him  no  rest  on  your  behalfs,  wishing  our  heads 
and  hearts  may  be  as  fountains  of  tears  for  your  ever- 
lasting welfare  when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages  in 
the  wilderness,   overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  suppli- 
cation, through  the  manifold  necessities  and  tribulations 
which  may  not  altogether  unexpectedly  nor,  we  hope,  un- 
profitably,  befall  us.     And  so  commending  you   to   the 
grace  of  God  in  Christ,  we  shall  ever  rest 
Your  assured  friends  and  brethren, 
John  Winthrope,  Gov.        Richard  Saltonstall, 
Charles  Fines,  Isaac  Johnson, 

Thomas  Dudley, 
George  Phillipps,  William  Coddington, 

&c.  &c. 

From  Yarmouth,  aboard  the  Arbella,  April  7,  1630. 

Who  it  was  that  drew  up  this  address,  is  not  known  ; 
but  the  preponderance  of  opinion  ascribes  it  to  Win- 
throp.  Whether  it  had  been  prepared  before  the 
embarkation  or  was  the  inspiration  of  the  hour,  is 
uncertain.  The  fact  that  it  was  dated  April  7,  and 
signed  only  by  those  who  were  together  on  the  Ar- 
bella favors  the  latter  conclusion.  It  was  a  moving 
plea  for  English  Puritans  to  read  and  ponder,  think- 
ing that  they  from  whom  it  came  were  far  out  of  sight, 
tossing  on  stormy  seas,  facing  an  unknown  future. 


WESTWARD  HO.  55 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WESTWARD   HO. 
(I630.) 

By  far  the  most  competent  extant  source  of  our 
information  concerning  John  Winthrop  personally 
henceforward,  and  as  well  of  our  comprehension  of 
the  experience  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  in  its 
planting  period,  is  an  ample  private  Journal,  or  Nar- 
rative, which  he  began  at  the  outset  of  the  voyage  to 
New  England.  It  opens:  "Anno  Domini,  1630, 
March  29,  Monday  [Easter  Monday].  Riding  at 
the  Cowes,  near  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  the  Arbella," 
and  continues  to  the  time  of  his  death.  No  more 
valuable  relic  of  its  kind  anywhere  exists.  It  bears 
on  every  page  ^^^ddent-^iam^jess.-of-ca»dour  and:  - 
veracity,  that  no  one  has  been  found  to  impeach  the 
witness  of  the  writer  regarding  his  own  acts,  which  it 
contains,  or  to  doubt  that  his  individual  traits  are 
truly  mirrored  in  it.  While  it  is  devoted,  with  slight 
exceptions,  to  public  concerns,  its  frequent  incomplete-  ^ 
ness  throughout  —  the  record  in  hundreds  of  places, 
and  at  important  points  often,  breaking  off  with  "  etc." 
—  indicates  that,  primarily,  he  wrote  it  for  himself; 
though  his  calling  it,  as  it  grew  upon  his  hands,  *  The 
History  of  New  England,"  and  the  occurrence  of 
numerous   blank  spaces   left  apparently  to   be  filled 


56  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

in  afterward,  but  especially  the  fact  that  it  is  writ- 
ten in  the  third  person,  suggest  that  he  was  not 
without  thought  of  its  ultimate  publication,  or,  at  all 
events,  of  its  use  by  others. 

This  Journal  has  an  interesting  history  of  its  own. 
For  a  century  after  Winthrop's  death  its  three  manu- 
script volumes  were  accessible.  The  most  notable 
annalists  of  New  England  in  that  period,  Mather, 
Hubbard,  Prince,  consulted  them.  Then  for  nearly 
half  a  century  they  were  out  of  sight,  till  Gov. 
Jonathan  Trumbull,  of  Connecticut,  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  discovered  the  first  two  volumes  in 
possession  of  John  Winthrop,  Jr.'s  descendants,  in 
New  London.  Finding  in  them  matter  of  great 
interest,  and,  for  reasons  that  will  abundantly  appear 
further  on,  of  peculiar  interest  to  one,  like  himself,  a 
leader  in  the  struggle  for  political  independence  then 
going  von,  he,  with  the  assistance  of  John  Porter, 
his  secretary,  copied  a  considerable  part  of  their  con- 
tents, —  of  which  Gen.  George  Washington,  the  next 
time  he  was  Brother  Jonathan's  guest,  the  two  being 
seated  together  in  the  famous  "war-office"  at  Leba- 
non, heard  passages,  it  is  safe  enough  to  conjecture. 
Soon  after  Governor  Trumbull's  death,  Noah  Webster, 
learning  of  this  copy  "by  accident,"  engaged  Porter 
to  make  another  for  him.  Upon  reading  which,  he 
was  convinced  that  such  a  treasure  ought  to  be 
printed ;  accordingly,  with  the  consent  of  the  Win- 
throp family,  and  with  the  collaboration  of  Porter  in 
completing  the  copy  and  improving  it  by  a  fresh 
examination  of  the  original,  Mr.  Webster  published 
it   at   Hartford   in    1790,  —  Winthrop    then    having 


WESTWARD  HO.  57 

been  more  than  a  hundred  and  forty  years  in  his 
grave.  Meanwhile  the  third  volume  was  missing 
till  the  spring  of  1 8 1 6,  when  it  came  to  light  in  the 
tower  of  the  Old  South  Church  in  Boston,  in  the 
library  of  Thomas  Prince,  the  historian,  —  minister 
of  the  Old  South  in  his  time,  —  stored  there  for  safety 
during  the  occupation  of  Boston  by  the  British,  who 
used  the  Old  South  for  a  cavalry  riding-school.  The 
third  volume,  thus  happily  recovered,  was  committed 
to  the  hands  of  the  assiduous  and  expert  colonial  an- 
tiquarian, James  Savage,  —  eminent  president,  later, 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  —  to  prepare 
for  the  press ;  he  at  the  same  time  undertaking  to 
edit  anew  the  other  volumes,  the  Hartford  edition, 
as  he  found  on  collating  it  with  the  originals,  leav- 
ing much  to  be  desired  on  the  score  of  accuracy. 
Mr.  Savage's  first  copy  of  the  third  volume  he  had 
the  misfortune  to  lose,  and  was  obliged  to  do  that 
portion  of  the  work  over  again  j  but  before  his  labours 
were  ended,  a  further  and  more  serious  misfortune 
befell  in  the  destruction  by  fire  of  the  second  volume 
of  the  original,  with  all  but  a  few  pages  of  his  new 
copy  of  it,  —  a  remediless  disaster.  So  that  the 
second  volume  of  the  journal,  as  published  by  him 
in  1825,  is  the  comparatively  uncritical  text  of  the 
first  publication.  The  priceless  first  and  third  vol- 
umes of  the  original  are  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

We  return   to  the  Arbella  and   her  consorts,  the 
Talbot,  the  Jewel,  the  Ambrose,  now  breasting  the 


58  •  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

Atlantic  waves.  Of  the  leavetaking,  protracted,  as 
we  have  seen,  for  several  days  while  they  waited  be- 
low Southampton  for  the  wind's  favour,  the  governor's 
new  Journal  notes  pleasing  incidents.  At  Yarmouth, 
April  6,  "  Captain  Burleigh,  captain  of  Yarmouth 
castle,  a  grave  comely  gentleman,  and  of  great  age, 
came  aboard  us  and  stayed  breakfast,  and  offering  us 
much  courtesy  he  departed,  our  captain  giving  him 
four  shot  out  of  the  forecastle  for  his  farewell.  He 
was  an  old  sea  captain  in  Queen  Elisabeth's  time, 
and  being  taken  prisoner  at  sea  was  kept  prisoner  in 
Spain  three  years." 

The  same  day  ex-Governor  Cradock  also  paid  the 
Arbella  a  visit,  and  was  dismissed  with  like  salute 
of  honour.  Not  so  pleasing  the  accident  by  which 
Henry  Winthrop,  happening  ashore  at  Cowes  when 
the  wind  changed,  had  to  be  left  behind  to  take  pas- 
sage in  one  of  the  later  ships. 

The  perils  of  the  deep  to  be  encountered  at  this 
time  were  not  all  those  of  nature.  There  was  war 
between  England  and  Spain;  and  Dunkirk,  across 
Dover  Strait,  was  a  nest  of  Spanish  privateers.  The 
word  at  Yarmouth  was  that  down  the  Channel  the  en- 
emy was  in  waiting.  So  when  off  Portland  eight  sail 
were  spied,  apparently  bearing  down  on  them,  they 
guessed  them  the  reported  "  Dunkirkers."  There  is  a 
fine  animation  in  the  governor's  account  of  how  the 
little  squadron,  dressing  quickly  for  fight,  "  tacked 
about  and  stood  to  meet  them.  .  .  .  Not  a  woman  or 
child  that  showed  fear  j  "  but  they  proved  nothing  of 
the  Dunkirker  species,  to  their  great  joy.     Through- 


WESTWARD  HO.  59 

out  the  passage  a  strange  sail  was  an  alarm  till  it  dis- 
appeared or  its  harmlessness  was  ascertained.  A 
long,  long  passage  it  was :  rainy,  chilly,  tempestuous 
exceedingly,  —  one  storm  lasting  ten  days;  seventy 
of  the  two  hundred  cattle  the  fleet  carried,  bruised  to 
death  by  it,  —  fraught  with  anxiety  for  consorts 
blown  out  of  sight  in  mid- ocean,  with  discomfort 
beyond  imagining,  yet  all  borne  with  a  cheerful, 
steady  mind,  "  no  fear  or  dismayedness  "  at  any  time 
manifest.  It  developed,  indeed,  that  among  their 
quota  of  indented  servants  were  some  rude  fellows, 
whose  ill  manners  it  was  occasionally  required  to 
rebuke  with  discipline;  but  these  aside,  the  Arbella 
(where  this  history  keeps  with  Winthrop  while  the 
colony  is  afloat)  was  as  a  church  of  God  on  the 
waters.  In  spite  of  circumstances,  there  was  much 
spiritual  employ  in  preaching  and  in  catechising; 
some  recreation,  too,  the  weather  permitting,  —  as 
when  "our  Captain  (Peter  Milborne)  set  our  chil- 
dren and  young  men  to  some  harmless  exercises, 
which  the  seamen  were  very  active  in,  and  did  our 
people  much  good,  though  they  would  sometimes 
play  the  wags  with  them." 

In  all  the  huddle  the  calm  governor  found  op- 
portunity to  write  his  Journal  punctually,  detailing 
the  experiences,  greater  and  lesser,  of  each  day. 
And  now  and  then  he  recorded  natural  phenomena 
that  drew  his  attention.  Thus,  the  seventh  week 
out,  — 

"Four things  I  observed  here.  i.  That  the  declina- 
tion of  the  pole  star  was   much,  even  to  the  view,  be- 


60  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

neath  that  it  is  in  England.  2.  That  the  new  moon,  when 
it  first  appeared,  was  much  smaller  than  at  any  time  I 
had  seen  it  in  England.  3.  That  all  the  way  we  came, 
we  saw  fowls  flying  and  swimming,  when  we  had  no  land 
near  by  two  hundred  leagues.  4.  That  wheresoever  the 
wind  blew,  we  had  still  cold  weather,  and  the  sun  did  not 
give  so  much  heat  as  in  England." 

In  the  course  of  the  passage  he  also  composed  an 
elaborate  discourse,  giving  expression  to  the  thoughts 
with  which,  as  leader  of  the  people  who  were  sailing 
with  him,  he' communed;  to  whom,  there  is  no  rea- 
son to  doubt,  he  delivered  it,  though  he  makes  no 
mention  at  all  of  it  himself.  The  copy  (by  some  later 
hand)  in  which  it  survived  bears  the  title  :  "  A  Modell 
of  Christian  Charity,  written  on  board  the  Arbella,  on 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  by  the  Hon.  John  Winthrop,  Esq., 
in  his  passage  (with  a  great  company  of  Religious  peo- 
ple, of  which  Christian  tribes  he  was  the  Brave  Leader 
and  famous  Governor;)  from  the  Island  of  Great 
Brittaine  to  New-England  in  the  North  America, 
Anno  1630." 

It  defines  the  object  of  their  "  Solemn  Venture  "  as 
"  by  a  mutual  consent,  through  a  special  over-ruling 
of  Providence,  and  a  more  than  ordinary  approbation 
of  the  Churches  of  Christ,  to  seek  out  a  place  of 
cohabitation  and  consortship  under  a  due  form  of 
government  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical." 

And  for  a  main  condition  of  success  it  enjoins  :  — 

M  For  this  end,  we  must  be  knit  together,  in  this  work, 
as  one  man  We  must  entertain  each  other  in  brotherly 
affection.  We  must  be  willing  to  abridge  ourselves  of 
our  superfluities,  for  the  supply  of  other's  necessities. 


WESTWARD  HO.  61 

We  must  uphold  a  familiar  commerce  together  in  all 
meekness,  gentleness,  patience,  and  liberality.  We  must 
delight  in  each  other  ;  make  other's  condition  our  own  ; 
rejoice  together,  mourn  together,  labour  and  suffer  to- 
gether, always  having  before  our  eyes  our  commission 
and  community  in  the  work,  as  members  of  the  same 
body  So  shall  we  kerp  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace.  The  Lord  will  be  our  God,  and  .  .  . 
make  us  a  praise  and  a  glory,  that  men  shall  say  of  suc- 
ceeding plantations,  '  The  Lord  make  it  likely  that  of 
New  England?  " 

Not  often  in  the  course  of  human  experience  has 
plainer  living  gone  with  higher  thinking  than  on  board 
the  Arbella  in  1630. 

On  the  sixty-eighth  day  from  the  embarkation, 
shrouded  in  fog  but  knowing  that  they  neared  land, 
they  observed  "  in  the  great  cabin "  a  fast  for  the 
Divine  protection;  the  next  day,  the  fog  having 
lifted,  a  thanksgiving.  One  day  more,  and  through 
the  dissolving  mist  land  was  descried,  —  the  coast  of 
Maine  to  the  eastward  of  Mount  Desert.  "  Then  we 
tacked  and  stood  W.  S.  W.  We  had  now  fair  sun- 
shine weather,  and  so  pleasant  a  sweet  air  as  did 
much  refresh  us ;  and  there  came  a  smell  off  the 
shore  like  the  smell  of  a  garden." 

It  was  still  a  week  before  the  Arbella  entered 
(June  22,  1630)  Salem  harbour,  where  shortly  she 
was  joined  by  her  consorts ;  and  the  weary  voyage 
of  eighty-four  days  from  Southampton  was  over. 


62  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   DAY   OF   DISTRESS. 
(1630-1631.) 

For  the  emigrants  now  at  their  journey's  end  a 
gloomy  surprise  was  in  store.  They  had  anticipated 
rinding  Endicott's  settlement  in  a  thrifty  state,  with 
quarters  ready  for  their  occupation,  and  growing 
crops  sufficient  —  with  what  they  brought  —  for  their 
sustenance  the  coming  winter ;  and  with  reason.  It 
was  partly  with  that  object  in  view  that  the  well- 
equipped  party  —  three  hundred  of  them  men  —  had 
been  sent  over  with  Higginson  and  Skelton  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  before ;  and  accounts  received  of 
them  had  been  of  a  character  to  warrant  confidence 
of  at  least  a  tolerably  furnished  welcome.  Higgin- 
son's  first  impressions  of  Massachusetts  had  been 
most  favourable.  In  his  "  Short  and  True  Description 
of  the  Commodities  and  Discommodities  of  that 
Country,"  sent  home  three  months  after  his  landing 
(June,  1629),  and  immediately  printed,  he  had  laid 
chief  emphasis  on  the  Commodities,  —  of  climate, 
soil,  resources,  —  all  of  which  he  praised  with  the 
ardour  of  youth.  "A  sup  of  New  England's  air,"  he 
said,  "is  better  than  a  whole  draught  of  old  Eng- 
land's ale.  .  .  .  The  abundant  increase  of  corn  proves 


THE  DA  Y  OF  DISTRESS.  63 

this  country  to  be  a  wonderment.  .  .  .  Yea,  Joseph's 
increase  in  Egypt  is  outstripped  here  with  us.  Our 
planters  hope  to  have  more  than  a  hundred  fold  this 
year.  The  abundance  of  sea  fish  are  almost  beyond 
believing."  And  of  sea  fowl  there  was  no  end. 
Land  game,  too,  in  profusion,  —  turkeys,  pigeons, 
partridges  "  as  big  as  our  hens."  "  Here  is  good 
living  for  those  that  love  good  fires."  He  reported 
that  at  Salem  they  were  making  all  haste  to  build 
houses,  "  so  that  within  a  short  time  we  shall  have  a 
fair  town;"  also  that  a  detachment  sent  down  to 
Mishawum  (Charlestown)  on  the  Bay,  in  obedience 
to  the  Company's  orders,  was  "  beginning  to  build  a 
town  there." 

But  the  expectation  inspired  by  so  hopeful  an  esti- 
mate from  such  a  source  was  now  rudely  disap- 
pointed. In  the  year  that  intervened  between  the 
writing  of  Higginson's  bright  prospectus  and  the  ar- 
rival, the  situation  in  Massachusetts  had  undergone 
a  melancholy  change.  The  winter  brought  sickness 
well-nigh  universal,  and  to  more  than  a  quarter  of 
the  plantation  fatal.  Higginson  himself,  who  in  his 
"Short  and  True  Description"  exulted  in  his  own 
extraordinarily  good  health,  had  sunk  into  a  decline, 
and  was  in  a  dying  state  when  Winthrop  came.  All 
work  had  been  interrupted,  nor  in  the  debilitated 
condition  of  the  community  could  it  be  resumed, 
either  planting  or  building,  to  much  effect  in  the 
spring.  "  All  the  corn  and  bread  amongst  them  all," 
wrote  Thomas  Dudley  the  next  year  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln,  "  was  hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  for 


64  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

a  fortnight."  The  governor,  now  charged  with  the 
oversight  of  affairs,  —  for  with  his  coming  Endi- 
cott's  authority  ceased,  —  found  himself,  the  moment 
his  foot  was  on  land,  in  difficulties  far  exceeding 
the  worst  he  could  have  feared.  There  were  a  thou- 
sand people  to  be  fed,  and  scarcity  was  at  the  door ; 
the  larger  part  of  that  number  to  be  sheltered,  and 
the  short  summer  was  passing.  Strong  men  were  at 
his  side  with  whom  to  counsel,  but  he  was  chief. 
His  action  in  the  emergency  was  marked  by  fitting 
promptitude.  A  large  number  of  indented  servants 
were  discharged  from  their  contracts,  to  take  their 
chances  with  the  rest.  The  first  available  ship  — 
the  Lyon,  William  Peirce  master,  calling  on  the 
way  up  from  Plymouth,  thirty  miles  below  —  was 
despatched  to  England  for  supplies.  It  was  necessary 
that  the  colony  should  be  located  with  the  least  pos- 
sible delay ;  and  since  "  Salem  pleased  them  not," 
the  governor  set  out  at  once  to  explore  the  region 
of  the  Bay  for  a  desirable  site.  The  entries  in 
his  Journal  just  along  here  are  few  and  short; 
not  one  word  does  he  say  of  the  state  of  things 
at  Salem. 

While  so  sorely  harassed  by  his  public  cares,  a 
heavy  stroke  of  private  grief  added  to  his  burden. 
His  son  Henry,  whose  accident  of  missing  passage 
by  the  Arbella  has  been  noted,  the  very  day  after 
his  arrival  by  another  ship,  swimming  a  creek  near 
Salem  to  fetch  across  a  canoe,  was  drowned. 

Henry,  the  second  born  of  Mary  Forth's  children, 
had  been  the  black  sheep  of  Winthrop's  flock ;  yet 


THE  DAY  OF  DISTRESS.  65 

not  so  very  black ;  not,  for  all  that  appears,  vicious, 
but  a  thriftless  wight,  of  an  unsteady  mind  and 
wayward  temper,  decidedly  non-Puritan  in  his  bent. 
At  twenty  (in  1627)  his  father  had  furnished  him 
the  means  for  a  tobacco-planting  venture  in  the  Bar- 
badoes,  which  by  his  negligence  resulted  in  failure 
and  his  return  home  in  some  disgrace.  But  he  mar- 
ried well  soon  after,  and  seems  to  have  turned  over 
a  new  leaf.  And  here,  in  a  strange  land  and  at  a 
strange  moment,  his  life,  of  a  sudden,  sadly  ends. 
The  governor's  note  of  the  tragedy  occupies  but  a 
single  line  of  the  Journal :  "  My  son,  H.  W.,  was 
drowned  at  Salem,"  —  wherein  the  pathetic  mark  of 
his  agitation  is  his  use  of  the  first  person :  it  is  one 
of  the  two  or  three  instances  in  which  it  occurs  for 
nineteen  years.  / 

Under  pressure  of  the  circumstances,  it  was  speedily 
decided  that  the  plan  of  keeping  the  colony  as  closely 
together  as  had  been  contemplated,  was  impracticable. 
Says  Dudley,  in  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  letter  above 
referred  to :  — 

"  We  were  forced  to  change  counsel  and  for  our  pres- 
ent shelter  to  plant  dispersedly.  .  .  .  This  dispersion 
troubled  some  of  us ;  but  help  it  we  could  not,  wanting 
ability  to  remove  to  any  place  fit  to  build  a  town  upon  and 
the  time  too  short  to  deliberate  any  longer  lest  the  winter 
should  surprise  us  before  we  had  builded  our  houses." 

Accordingly  the  body  of  the  emigrants  —  all  but 
a  few  who  continued  at  Salem  with  Endicott,  and  a 
few  more  who  stopped  at  Saugus  (Lynn) — divided 
into  parties,  some  magistrates  with  each,  and  disposed 

5 


66  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

themselves  at  different  places  on  the  Bay  and  its  two 
rivers,  as  they  chose  :  the  largest  with  Winthrop  and 
Deputy-Governor  Dudley  at  Charlestown,  where  some 
sort  of  a  Government  House  had  been  erected ;  the 
others  at  Maiden,  at  Watertown,  at  Roxbury,  and  the 
West  Country  people  at  Dorchester. 

After  a  General  Thanksgiving  for  deliverance  from 
the  perils  of  the  sea,  all  betook  themselves  to  the  en- 
deavour of  averting,  so  far  as  might  be,  the  perils 
now  succeeding.  Spaces  were  cleared  in  the  primeval 
forest,  where,  amid  the  stumps,  their  villages  of  grass- 
thatched  log  cabins  clustered  close  about  a  meeting- 
house, were  in  the  few  weeks  of  available  weather  left 
erected.  And  then  soon  began  a  wrestle  with  Death. 
With  autumn,  sickness  —  sequel,  as  before,  to  the  hard- 
ships of  the  voyage,  precipitated  by  the  inevitable  un- 
sanitary conditions  of  hastily  prepared  lodging  —  broke 
out  afresh,  and  the  tribulation  of  the  previous  winter 
was  reproduced.  The  scourge  fell  heaviest  on  Charles- 
town,  "where  the  multitude  set  up  cottages,  booths, 
and  tents  about  the  Town  Hill."  Among  the  earliest 
victims  was  the  gentle  Lady  Arbella  Johnson,  who,  as 
Cotton  Mather  says,  "  took  New  England  on  her  way 
to  heaven."  Her  husband,  Isaac  Johnson,  one  of  the 
choicest  men  of  the  colony,  as  he  was  the  wealthiest, 
survived  her  but  a  month.  By  December,  in  the  sev- 
eral plantations  around  the  circle  of  the  Bay,  no  less 
than  two  hundred  had  been  buried  ;  not  a  few  of  them 
those  that  could  least  be  spared.  "  It  may  be  said  of 
us,"  wrote  Dudley,  "  almost  as  of  the  Egyptians,  that 
there  is  not  a  house  where  there  is  not  one  dead." 


THE  DAY  OF  DISTRESS.  6j 

Meantime  the  slender  stock  of  provision  was  wast- 
ing. With  such  cold  and  snow  as  they  had  never 
seen  till  then  ;  swept  by  the  sea-winds,  dismal,  hoarse  ; 
behind,  the  grim  silent  wilderness  ;  starvation  stalking 
among  them  ;  they  were,  indeed,  in  woful  case.  "  It 
would,"  says  Edward  Johnson  the  historian,  who  saw 
it  all,  "  have  moved  the  most  lockt  up  affection 
to  tears,  no  doubt,  had  they  past  from  one  hut  to 
another  and  beheld  the  piteous  case  these  people 
were  in."  Surely  the  winter  stars  never  looked  down 
on  a  forlorner  sight.  Till  the  ship  should  come  there 
was  no  resource  except  the  scant  uncertain  product  of 
winter  fishing,  with  clams  and  mussels  from  the  icy 
beach,  eked  out  with  acorns  and  ground  nuts,  and 
the  trifle  of  corn  that  could  be  obtained  from  the 
Indians ;  of  whom,  however,  they  saw,  and  in  their 
evil  plight  were  content  to  see,  very  little. 

The  most  explicit  record  by  an  eyewitness  of  the 
distress  of  that  winter  of  1 630-1 631  — for  the  gover- 
nor's Journal  is  silent  on  the  subject,  and  in  his  letters 
he  treats  it  with  rigid  brevity  —  is  preserved  in  the 
memoirs  of  Capt.  Roger  Clap,  of  Dorchester,  com- 
posed for  his  children  in  his  old  age.     He  says  :  — 

"  Bread  was  so  very  scarce  that  sometimes  I  thought 
the  very  crusts  of  my  father's  table  would  have  been  very 
sweet  to  me.  And  when  I  could  have  meal  and  water 
and  salt  boiled  together,  it  was  so  good,  who  could  wish 
for  better  ?  .  .  .  Many  were  in  great  straits  for  food  for 
themselves  and  their  little  ones.  Oh  the  hunger  that 
many  suffered,  and  saw  no  hope  in  an  eye  of  reason  to  be 
supplied." 


68  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

It  was  not  in  human  nature  that  in  an  extremity  so 
nearly  desperate  there  should  be  none  whose  resolu- 
tion failed.  About  a  hundred  —  some  without  much 
delay  —  retreated  back  to  England ;  the  rest  that  lived 
abided  their  fortunes. 

As  to  Winthrop,  if  he  was  the  man  of  all  who  in 
his  person  represented  the  motive  and  original  design 
of  the  enterprise,  he  was  now  the  exponent  of  the 
spirit  that  bore  it  through  its  season  of  mortal  travail. 
He  himself  was  untouched  by  the  sickness,  though 
twelve  of  those  housed  under  the  same  roof  with  him 
perished.  His  letters,  as  we  have  said,  do  not  dwell 
on  the  sad  scenes  passing  before  his  eyes,  or  betray 
any  trace  of  disheartenment  or  regret  on  account  of 
them.  Dudley  might  write  :  "  If  any  come  hither  to 
plant  for  worldly  ends  that  can  live  well  at  home,  he 
commits  an  error  of  which  he  will  soon  repent  him ; " 
but  not  a  word  in  that  strain  from  the  governor. 

Writing  to  Margaret  in  September,  after  speaking 
of  "our  days  of  affliction,"  which  he  hopes  will  "soon 
have  an  end,"  he  says :  '"  I  thank  God  I  like  so  well 
to  be  here  as  I  do  not  repent  my  coming ;  and  if  I 
were  to  come  again  I  would  not  have  altered  my 
course  though  I  had  foreseen  all."  Yet  before  closing 
he  owns  that  he  has  been  so  overpressed  by  business 
as  often  to  forget  those  Monday  and  Friday  spiritual 
appointments  he  had  with  her.  Again,  in  Novem- 
ber :  "  My  dear  Wife,  we  are  here  in  a  paradise. 
Though  we  have  not  beef  and  mutton  etc.,  yet  (God 
be  praised)  we  want  them  not  j  our  Indian  corn  an- 
swers for  all."     A  paradise  in  posse  he  intended,  —  it 


THE  DA  Y  OF  DISTRESS.  69 

was  in  no  sense  a  paradise  in  esse  at  that  moment,  — 
meaning  what  he  had  written  to  John,  Jr.,  awhile 
before  :  "  Here  is  sweet  air,  fair  rivers  and  plenty  of 
springs,  and  the  water  better  than  in  England.  Here 
can  be  no  want  of  anything  to  those  who  bring  means 
to  raise  out  of  the  earth  and  sea." 

It  was  ever  a  mark  of  Winthrop's  unreserved  and 
irrevocable  adoption  of  New  England  as  the  country 
of  his  earthly  hope,  that  from  the  hour  he  trod  its  soil 
his  whole  sentiment  of  home  loyalty  was  unalterably 
fixed  upon  it.  In  every  thought  of  his  heart  he  be- 
came its  champion.  He  mitigated  the  charge  of 
unwholesomeness  the  sickness  might  raise  against  it 
by  noting  that  it  was  most  fatal  in  the  case  of  "  such 
as  fell  into  discontent  and  lingered  after  their  former 
conditions  in  England,"  — which  was  entirely  true,  no 
doubt.  He  never  counted  himself  an  exile.  Almost 
the  only  trace  in  the  Journal  of  his  revisiting  in  fancy 
the  scenes  of  his  former  life  is  his  remark  of  an 
earthquake  that  occurred  in  1638,  that  it  sounded 
"  like  the  rattling  of  coaches  in  London."  It  was 
always  a  sore  trial  to  his  patience  that  any  one  should 
"  abase  the  goodness  of  the  country,"  and  the  supreme 
trial  that  any  one  should  forsake  it.  To  his  eye  it 
was  henceforth  the  best  land  the  sun  shone  on. 

Of  the  governor's  bearing  through  all  this  tragical 
experience,  how  unselfish  and  brave ;  of  the  example 
of  fortitude  with  which  he  sustained  the  courage  of 
the  stricken  colony,  —  with  which  his  own  modesty 
would  not  have  acquainted  us,  —  we  fortunately  have 
knowledge  by  the  testimony  of  contemporaries  and  of 


7°  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

credible  tradition.  Of  the  former  is  the  renowned 
Capt.  John  Smith,  who  as  early  as  1614  had  explored, 
and  with  substantial  accuracy  mapped,  the  Massachu- 
setts coast,  and  who  gave  New  England  its  name. 
He,  describing,  very  near  the  time,  the  misfortune  of 
this  period,  reports  :  — 

"  Notwithstanding  all  this,  the  noble  Governour  was  no 
way  disanimated,  neither  repents  him  of  his  enterprise  for 
all  those  mistakes,  but  did  order  all  things  with  that  tem- 
perance and  discretion,  and  so  releeved  those  that  wanted 
with  his  owne  provision." 

Another  contemporaneous  narrative  (narrator's 
name  lost) ,  in  an  account  of  the  same,  says,  — 

"  Now  so  soone  as  Mr.  Winthrop  was  landed,  per- 
ceiving what  misery  was  like  to  ensewe  through  theire 
Idlenes,  he  presently  fell  to  worke  with  his  owne  hands, 
&  thereby  soe  encouradged  the  rest  that  there  was  not  an 
Idle  person  then  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Plantation." 

Cotton  Mather  is  a  later  witness ;  but  in  likening 
him  to  "Joseph  unto  whom  the  whole  body  of  the 
people  repaired  when  their  corn  failed  them,"  and  in 
relating  that  "  when  he  was  distributing  the  last  hand- 
ful of  meal  in  the  barrel  unto  a  poor  man  distressed 
by  the  wolf  at  the  door,  at  that  instant  they  spied  a 
ship  arrived  at  the  harbour's  mouth  laden  with  provi- 
sions for  them  all,"  he  shows  how  the  story  of  the 
governor's  self-devotion,  that  first  dreadful  winter, 
lived  in  men's  mouths,  and  was  a  fireside  tale  in 
Massachusetts  down  to  the  end  of  the  century. 

Such  a  report  of  him  went  home  to  England  that 


THE  DAY  OF  DISTRESS.  7 1 

his  friend  John  Humphrey  (deputy-governor  before 
the  embarkation)  wrote  to  him  in  a  strain  of  earnest 
remonstrance,  entreating  him  to  beware  lest  his  "  bodie, 
not  accustomed  to  hardnes  of  unusual  kindes,  &  not 
necessitated  unles  by  a  voluntarie  &  contracted  ne- 
cessitie,  should  sinke  under  his  burthen,  &  fall  to 
mine   for  want  of  a  more  conscionable  tenaunt." 

The  -arrival  of  the  Lyon  in  February,  1631,  — 
seven  months  she  had  been  gone,  —  while  it  did  not 
terminate  the  public  affliction,  for  the  mortality 
continued  excessive  till  summer,  lightened  the 
gloom  and  alleviated  much  of  the  suffering.  The 
private  news  she  brought  Winthrop  was  both  very 
joyful  and  very  sorrowful.  Margaret  had  passed  safely 
through  the  perils  of  childbed,  and  he  had  another 
daughter;  but  Forth  (third  child  of  his  first  mar- 
riage), just  out  of  Cambridge,  —  contemporary  of  Mil- 
ton there,  —  fondly  beloved,  consecrated  to  the  gospel 
ministry,  had  died  in  November ;  had  been  weeks  in 
his  grave  when  his  father,  unsuspicious  of  the  heavy 
tidings  then  on  the  way,  was  writing  to  John,  Jr.,  "  I 
never  had  letter  yet  from  your  brother  Forth." 

Alas,  poor  governor !  Twice  so  bereaved  in  one 
year ;  and  the  skies  so  dark  overhead  ! 

The  Lyon's  freight  of  supplies  was  at  once  dis- 
tributed, and  then  (February  22)  the  occasion  was 
solemnized  by  the  observance  of  a  day  of  thanksgiving 
throughout  the  colony,  —  inauguration  of  New  Eng- 
land's characteristic  and  most  distinctive  festival.  Sit 
perpetua. 


72  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   GOVERNMENT,    CIVIL  AND   ECCLESIASTICAL. 
(1630-1631). 

In  order  not  to  interrupt  the  story  o_  the  Day 
of  Distress,  we  have  run  by  events  that  are  very 
important. 

Not  even  the  shock  of  the  discovery  of  their  un- 
provided condition,  nor  the  ensuing  bitter  struggle  for 
existence,  could  divert  the  minds  of  the  emigrants 
from  that  which  was  the  main  object  of  their  expatri- 
ation, —  the  planting  of  a  church.  Immediately 
upon  the  dispersion  from  Salem,  in  the  month  of 
July,  1630,  on  the  basis  of  a  covenant  of  fellowship 
in  Christian  living,  subscribed  —  with  the  accompani- 
ment of  prayer  and  fasting  —  by  Governor  Winthrop, 
Deputy-Governor  Dudley,  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  and 
Isaac  Johnson,  a  church  was  formed  at  Charlestown, 
which  a  few  days  after,  enlarged  in  the  interval  by 
considerable  additions,  completed  its  organization  in 
the  election  by  all  its  members  and  out  of  their 
own  number,  of  Mr.  Wilson  as  teacher,  of  a  ruling 
elder,  and  of  two  deacons.  The  institution  of  like 
churches  in  the  several  plantations  followed ;  except 
Dorchester,  the  people  there  having  so  organized  be- 


FORMATION  OF  CHURCHES.  73 

fore  leaving  England.  At  Salem  the  same  had  been 
done  the  previous  year. 

Thus  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  the  original 
churches  of  Massachusetts  was  that  of  Congregation- 
alism pure  and  simple ;  and  the  same  was  true  of 
their  customs. 

How  this  came  about  has  been  the  subject  of  no 
little  diversity  of  opinion.  It  has  sometimes  been 
assumed  that  it  was  mainly  due  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  situation,  and  was,  in  that  sense,  accidental.  But 
what  there  was  in  the  circumstances  to  make  so  com- 
plete a  departure  from  the  church  ways  altogether 
in  which  they  had  been  bred,  more  convenient  than 
to  abide  in  them,  —  which  in  many  particulars  (use  of 
liturgy,  for  example)  there  was  nothing  to  prevent,  —  it 
is  not  easy  to  see.  The  Puritans  were  not,  like  the 
Pilgrims,  Separatists  on  principle.  We  saw  how  fondly, 
in  the  last  words  with  which  Winthrop  and  his  asso- 
ciates took  leave  of  England,  they  protested  their 
filial  love  for  the  English  Church.  Higginson's  leave- 
taking,  before  them,  had  been  in  the  same  strain  :  — 

"  We-  will  not  say,  as  the  separatists  were  wont  to  say 
at  their  leaving  of  England,  —  Farewell  Babylon  !  Fare- 
well Rome  !  but  we  will  say,  farewell  dear  England ! 
farewell  the  Church  of  God  in  England,  and  all  the  Chris- 
tian friends  there!" 

The  explanation  that  would  reconcile  such  expres-    \ 
sions  with  the  procedure  so  soon  adopted  must  be 
largely  an  inference  ;  for  the  Puritans  took  little  care 
to  explain  it  themselves,  —  so  little  as  to  suggest  that 
the  inconsistency  was  to  them  not  so  great  as  it  seems 


74  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

to  later  observation.  The  principal  solution  of  the 
matter  probably  is  that  the  Church  of  England,  as 
they  meant  it,  was  broadly  distinguished  from  the 
Establishment.  It  was  the  Church  spiritual,  com- 
posed of  those  who  held  the  reformed  faith  in  true 
godliness  of  life.  In  the  communion  of  such  the 
Church  had  its  vital  being.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  had  no  more  earnest  confessors 
than  the  Puritans ;  but  beyond  that,  they  were  greatly 
out  of  correspondence  with  the  Establishment, — 
nonconformists,  as  all  men  knew. 

Their  nonconformity  was,  however,  of  differing 
degrees,  as  the  ground  covered  by  what  they  regarded 
the  corruptions  of  the  Church,  and  "scrupled" 
accordingly,  was  less  or  more.  This  our  emigrants 
exemplified.  The  ministers  with  them  were  all 
Church  of  England  clergymen.  In  the  organization 
of  the  Salem  and  the  Dorchester  churches  this  fact 
had  counted  for  nothing  as  qualifying  for  the  pastoral 
office,  which  was  held  to  require  ordination  de  novo. 
At  Salem,  moreover,  John  Browne  and  Samuel 
Browne,  brothers,  whom  the  course  taken  there 
displeased,  and  who,  with  some  others  likewise  dis- 
affected, stood  aloof  from  the  congregation,  and 
insisted  on  worshipping  by  themselves,  using  the 
service  of  the  Prayer-Book,  were,  for  that  non- 
conformity to  nonconformity,  though  men  of  good 
esteem  otherwise,  sent  back  to  England  as  factious 
persons.  From  which  it  appears  that  the  view  pre- 
vailed at  Salem  that  both  episcopal  orders  and  liturgy 
were  of  the  "  rags  of  popery,"  to  be  eschewed. 


FORMATION  OF  CHURCHES.  75 

But  when  Mr.  Wilson  was  chosen  pastor  of  the 
Charlestown  church,  —  though  installed  by  "  imposi- 
tion of  hands,"  it  was,  says  Winthrop,  "with  this 
protestation  by  all,  that  it  was  only  as  a  sign  of 
election  and  confirmation,  not  of  any  intent  that 
Mr.  Wilson  should  renounce  his  ministry  he  re- 
ceived in  England,"  —  betokening  a  lighter  shade  of 
nonconformity. 

^It  was  a  good  while  before  the  Church  of  England 
question,  in  its  theoretical  aspect,  was  fully  settled  at 
the  Bay,  but  the  procedure  was  substantially  Separa- 
tist from  the  start.  Ten  years  later,  Winthrop  would 
note  it  in  the  Journal  as  "  a  thing  worthy  of  observa- 
tion," that  "Mr.  Winthrop  the  younger,  one  of  the 
magistrates,  having  many  books  in  a  chamber  where 
there  was  corn  of  divers  sorts,  had  among  them  one 
wherein  the  Greek  testament,  the  psalms,  and  the 
common  prayer  were  bound  together.  He  found 
the  common  prayer  eaten  with  mice,  every  leaf  of 
it,  and  not  any  of  the  two  other  touched,  nor  any 
other  of  his  books,  though  there  were  above  a 
thousand."  But  it  is  altogether  unlikely  that  in 
1630  he  would  have  deemed  such  a  hap  on  that  wise 
observable. 

It  is  undeniable,  however,  that  the  prelacy  feature 
of  the  Church  of  England  had  become  —  and  for 
obvious  reasons  —  an  offence  to  the  Puritan  element, 
and  that  the  Massachusetts  colonists,  under  liberty  of 
a  charter  construed  —  for  example,  by  Winthrop  in  the 
"  Model  of  Charity  "  —  as  conferring  the  privilege  of 
shaping  a  "  due  form  of  government,  civil  and  eccle- 


76  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

siastical"  and  emboldened,  perhaps,  by  their  remote 
situation,  were  unanimously  bent  on  its  omission  from 
the  religious  institutions  of  the  new  commonwealth. 
And  therewith  they  purged  out  all  customs  that  in 
their  view  savoured  of  sacerdotalism.  Only  the  civil 
magistrate  could  solemnize  marriage ;  there  was  no 
religious  service  at  funerals ;  the  fasts  and  feasts  of 
the  Christian  year  were  ignored ;  the  'reading  of  the 
Bible  in  public  worship  without  exposition  was  dis- 
allowed lest  it  should  become  ritual. 

How  far  the  order  taken  had  been  planned  in  ad- 
vance is  not  clear.  The  fact  that  upon  hearing  the 
story  of  the  banished  Brownes  the  Company  in 
London  had  written  at  once  to  Endicott,  expressing 
the  apprehension  that  possibly  "  some  undigested 
counsels  have  too  suddenly  been  put  in  execution, 
which  may  have  an  ill  construction  with  the  State 
here  ...  to  which  (as  we  ought)  we  must  and  will 
have  an  obsequious  eye  ;  "  together  with  the  fact  that 
the  advice  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  — 
the  "Old  Colony,"  as  it  was  called  —  was  sought  in 
organizing  the  Salem  church,  the  pattern  of  which 
the  other  churches  closely  followed,  makes  it  probable 
that  not  till  the  emigrants  arrived  on  the  ground  was 
the  mode  of  "  church  estate  "  they  should  adopt  fully 
known  to  themselves. 

Their  haste  to  fix  that  mode  may  well  have  been 
occasioned  by  circumstances.  Plunged  in  trouble 
and  forced  to  scatter,  they  had  never  needed  the 
supports  of  religion  and  of  its  ordinances  more ; 
and  great  solace  for  their  season  of  extremity  they 


CIVIL   GOVERNMENT  SET  IN  MOTION      77 

found  therein.     Says  old  Capt.  Roger  Clap,  reverting 
to  that  time  :  — 

"  God's  holy  spirit  in  those  days  was  pleased  to  ac- 
company the  Word  with  such  efficacy  upon  the  hearts  of 
many,  that  our  hearts  were  taken  off  from  Old  England 
and  set  upon  heaven.  The  discourse  not  only  of  the 
aged  but  of  the  youth  also  was  not  '  How  shall  we  go  to 
England  ? '  (though  some  few  did  not  only  so  discourse, 
but  also  went  back  again)  but '  How  shall  we  go  to  Heaven  ? 
Have  I  true  grace  wrought  in  my  heart  ?  Have  I  Christ 
or  no  ? '  .  .  .  O  the  many  tears  that  have  been  shed  in 
Dorchester  meeting-house  at  such  times,  both  by  those 
that  have  declared  God's  work  in  their  souls,  and  also  by 
those  that  heard  them.  In  those  days  God,  even  our 
own  God,  did  bless  New  England !  " 

The  civil  government  was  likewise  promptly  in 
operation.  As  soon  as  the  bustle  of  landing  and 
getting  into  place  was  over,  the  Courts  of  Assistants 
began.  The  business  transacted  by  them  was  for  a 
time  mainly  the  small  municipal,  quite  a  little  of  it 
of  the  police-court  order,  —  the  subjects  generally 
varlets  of  the  servant  class,  prone  to  sins  of  the 
flesh,  —  but  some  of  it  important. 

The  first,  at  Charlestown,  August  28,  —  nine  magis- 
trates in  attendance,  —  provided  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  ministers,  and  appointed  justices  of  the  peace. 
It  also  cited  that  old  offender,  Thomas  Morton,  of 
Merrymount  (Quincy),  once  expelled  the  country 
by  Plymouth  Colony,  but  now  back  again,  and  re- 
suming his  scandalous  practices,  —  which  were  indeed 
such,  —  to  appear  and  answer  for  the  same.  At  the 
next  session  it  ordered  his  goods  confiscated  to  pay 


78  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

costs  of  suit,  his  house  burned  in  satisfaction  to  the 
Indians  of  wrongs  he  had  done  them,  and  himself 
"  sett  into  the  bilbowes  and  returned  prisoner  to 
England."  Morton,  in  his  book,  "The  New  English 
Canaan,"  published  in  1637,  in  which  he  endeavours 
to  get  even  with  his  persecutors,  says  that  at  his  trial, 
attempting  to  protest  against  his  sentence,  he  was 
silenced  by  a  general  clamour  of  "  Hear  the  Gov- 
ernor !  hear  the  Governor  !  "  But  the  impression  of 
the  governor  left  with  him  after  all  is  denoted  by  the 
fact  that  while  he  lampoons  other  members  of  the 
court  under  cover  of  opprobrious  fictitious  names, 
the  worst  he  does  in  his  case,  beyond  dubbing  him 
King  Winthrop,  is  to  call  him  "Joshua  Temperwell." 

The  doings  of  these  early  Courts  of  Assistants  show 
that  the  view  of  the  magistrates  as  to  their  powers 
and  duties  was  emphatically  paternal.  Yet  they 
were  beautifully  impartial.  They  fined  one  of  their 
own  number,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  five  pounds  for 
an  infraction  of  their  rules.  And  when  Endicott,  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  was  accused  of  assault  and  bat- 
tery on  the  person  of  goodman  Dexter,  they  had  the 
matter  looked  into,  to  the  result  that  the  choleric 
worthy  paid  forty  shillings'  damage,  notwithstanding 
he  wrote  to  Winthrop :  "  I  acknowledge  I  was  too 
rash  in  striking  him.  .  .  .  But  if  you  had  seen  the 
manner  of  his  carriage,  with  such  daring  of  me  with 
his  arms  on  kembow,  &c,  it  would  have  provoked  a 
very  patient  man." 

The  first  Great  and  General  Court  was  held  in 
October,    1630.      Only   about    twenty  —  twelve    of 


THE  NEW  FREEMEN.  79 

them  magistrates  —  were  qualified  as  members  of  the 
Company,  to  sit  in  it.  But  upon  its  meeting,  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  eighteen  more  applied  to  it 
for  admission  to  the  list  of  freemen.  Now,  whatever 
had  been  the  original  design  of  the  provision  in  the 
charter  that  all  members  of  the  Company  should 
have  a  voice  in  affairs,  —  presumably  it  was  to  induce 
persons  of  quality  to  join,  —  nothing  was  further  from 
it  than  to  institute  anything  in  the  nature  of  popular 
government.  Winthrop's  personal  theory  of  the  true 
policy  of  government  is  reflected  in  his  famous  say- 
ing, that  of  the  civil  community  "  the  best  part  is 
always  the  least,  and  of  that  best  part  the  wiser  part 
is  always  the  lesser."  The  prospect  of  so  large  an 
addition  to  the  voting  element  —  for  denying  the 
applicants  seems  not  to  have  been  thought  of — 
struck  the  administration  with  something  like  dismay, 
as  it  was  quite  natural  it  should,  especially  at  that 
juncture.  To  avert  the  hazards  involved  in  it,  a 
measure  was  framed  by  the  Court  to  the  effect  that 
thenceforth  the  scope  of  political  action  by  the  whole 
body  of  freemen  should  be  limited  to  the  election  of 
Assistants ;  the  Assistants  to  choose  the  governor 
and  the  deputy-governor  out  of  their  own  number; 
and  the  board  of  magistrates  to  do  all  the  governing. 
This  measure,  though  squarely  opposed  to  the  express 
terms  of  the  charter,  was,  at  a  public  gathering  of  the 
colony,  "  fully  assented  to  by  the  general  vote  of  the 
people  and  erection  of  hands,"  and  then  the  appli- 
cants were  received.  But  that  was  not  all.  As  a 
further  safeguard,  the   Court  of  Assistants  in  March 


So  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

following  (1631)  ordered  that  the  acts  of  a  majority 
of  the  Assistants  resident  in  the  colony,  whether 
or  not  they  were  a  full  board,  should  be  valid ;  the 
object  of  which  was  to  forestall  the  risk  of  having 
vacancies  filled  by  the  commons  with  unsuitable  per- 
sons, and  at  the  same  time  to  leave  such  vacancies 
open  for  certain  gentlemen  whose  arrival  from  Eng- 
land was  looked  for.  Yet  not  even  with  these  steps 
of  prudence  were  the  leaders  satisfied.  The  first 
Court  of  Elections  (May,  1631)  supplemented  them 
with  two  more.  It  made  a  rule  which  in  its  practical 
working  would  keep  the  Assistants  already  in  office 
in  their  places  without  re-election  till  removed  for 
cause.  It  also  passed  the  celebrated  law  that  "  to  the 
end  the  body  of  commons  may  be  preserved  of  good 
and  honest  men,  ...  for  time  to  come  no  man  shall 
be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  body  politic  but 
such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches  within 
the  limits  of  the  same." 

That  all  this  usurpation  —  it  was  no  less  —  was 
acquiesced  in  by  the  people,  must  be  attributed  in 
some  degree  to  their  ignorance,  as  was  afterward 
said,  "  of  what  prerogative  and  liberty  they  had  of  the 
charter ;  "  more  to  the  great  and  deserved  respect 
in  which  the  magistrates  and  the  ministers  were  per- 
sonally held,  who  represented  and  who  felt  it  to  be 
necessary;  most  of  all  to  the  preoccupation  of  the 
general  mind  with  the  sufferings  of  the  time.  It  was 
mischievous  legislation,  and  so  turned  out;  but  it 
was  inspired  by  wholly  disinterested  motives,  and  was 
conformed  to  ideas  most  sincerely  entertained  by  those 


WELL-MEANT  USURPATION.  81 

with  whom  it  originated.  That  it  was  oppressive,  they 
would  have  deemed  the  absurdest  misjudgment. 

The  rule  relating  to  church-membership,  it  should 
be  observed,  was  not  in  itself  an  innovation.  It 
existed  in  England  then  and  for  a  very  long  while 
after.  It  is  celebrated,  as  we  have  said,  because  the 
estate  of  church-membership  in  the  Massachusetts 
Colony  was  conditioned  on  what  was  approved  as  evi- 
dence of  actual  Christian  character.  That  was  the  only 
singularity  attaching  to  it,  and  is  the  principal  ground 
of  its  lasting  offence.  The  derision  of  the  piety  of 
the  Forefathers  is  of  ancient  date.  An  extant  letter 
of  Endicott's  to  Winthrop  describes  its  practice  in  the 
very  beginning  by  sailors ;  tells  how  on  the  passage 
they  would  "  in  a  scoffe  ask  when  they  should  come 
to  the  holie  Land ;  "  and  in  harbour,  would  remark 
upon  a  colonist  coming  aboard  ship  :  "  This  is  one 
of  the  holie  brethren,  mockinglie  and  disdainefullie  ;  n 
and  feign  surprise  that  such  people  offered  to  buy  pro- 
vision, observing  "  that  they  could  not  want  anything, 
they  were  full  of  the  spiritt." 

But  however  freely  the  leaders,  having  on  one  side, 
so  far  as  might  be,  insured  the  public  welfare,  breathed 
for  a  season,  the  problem  of  government  at  the  Bay 
was  not  yet  solved  by  a  good  deal,  as  will  be  seen. 


82  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BOSTON. 
(1630-1631.) 

A  memorable  event  of  the  colony's  first  year,  not 
yet  noticed,  is  the  removal  of  Winthrop  and  the  most 
of  the  people  with  him  at  Charlestown,  to  Boston,  — 
which  happened  on  this  wise.  A  particular  hardship 
experienced  at  Charlestown  had  been  lack  of  good 
water.  Across  the  Charles  River,  on  the  peninsula 
then  called  Shawmut,  less  frequently  Trimountain, 
lived,  and  had  for  some  while  lived,  one  of  those  few 
lone  planters  lodged  at  various  points  on  the  New 
England  coast,  named  William  Blackstone,  conjec- 
tured to  have  been  a  tenant  agent  in  some  sort  of  a 
claim  to  the  Massachusetts  territory  thereabout,  based 
on  a  grant  prior  to  that  of  the  Bay  Company.  Mr. 
Blackstone  seeing  the  distress  of  Charlestown,  and 
its  aggravation  by  reason  of  insufficient  water,  moved 
with  generous  pity,  "  came  and  acquainted  the  gov- 
ernor "  of  a  copious  and  excellent  spring  over  on  his 
land,  —  "  withal  inviting  and  soliciting  him  thither." 
Accordingly,  early  in  autumn  (1630),  the  shift  was 
made.  The  Common  was  part  of  this  good  Black- 
stone's  farm.  Washington  and  Tremont  Streets,  says 
tradition,  "  follow  the  windings  "  of  his  cow.  He  is 
the  original  Bostonian,  and  for  his  hospitable  spirit 


SUA  WMUT  PENINSULA.  83 

worthy  of  the  honour,  —  otherwise  worthy  also.  He 
was  a  Cambridge  graduate,  a  clergyman,  and  of  schol- 
arly, bookish  tastes.  The  colony,  while  brushing 
aside  the  claim  he  represented,  treated  him  afterward 
with  grateful  liberality ;  and  he  continued  to  reside  in 
Boston  till  1635,  when,  being  a  lover  of  seclusion,  he 
retired  elsewhere.  He  became  a  freeman  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, but  would  never  connect  himself  with  any 
of  its  churches ;  when  urged  to  do  so,  replying  with 
a  humour  not  wholly  inapt,  "  I  came  from  England 
because  I  did  not  like  the  lord-bishops ;  but  I  cannot 
join  with  you  because  I  would  not  be  under  the  lord- 
brethren." 

The  Boston  peninsula  of  1630  was  between  seven 
and  eight  hundred  acres  in  extent,  or  of  less  than  half 
its  present  area.  By  the  earliest  descriptions  it  was 
scantily  wooded,  bushy,  with  "  hideous  thickets  "  at 
intervals  where  "wolves  and  bears  nursed  up  their 
young  from  the  eyes  of  all  beholders."  That  it  was 
"  environed  by  brinish  floods,"  and  was  of  such  an 
elevation  on  its  "  frontice-part  next  the  sea,"  were 
regarded  features  of  peculiar  advantage  as  favourable 
to  its  fortification.  The  new  occupants  took  up  their 
quarters  on  the  east  or  seaward  side,  —  the  site  of 
the  governor's  house,  homely  but  spacious,  being  op- 
posite present  Milk  Street,  and  his  garden  including 
the  ground  on  which  stands  the  Old  South.  Under 
his  roof  the  sessions  of  the  Court  were  held,  and 
probably,  till  the  meeting-house  was  built  two  years 
later,  the  congregation  assembled  for  worship. 

Among  the  official  duties  of  the  chief  of  the  state, 


84  .  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

during  this  initial  period,  was  the  superintendence  of 
Indian  relations.  Of  the  New  England  aborigines 
there  were  then  in  Massachusetts  and  the  regions 
bordering  several  thousands,  of  half-a-dozen  different 
tribes ;  but  the  number  in  the  near  vicinity  of  the  Bay 
was  quite  small,  —  at  most,  two  or  three  hundred ;  the 
bulk  of  them,  under  Chief  Chickatabot,  dwelling  on 
Neponset  River  east  of  Dorchester;  though,  of  the 
early  writers,  Wood  speaks  of  a  "  duke  of  Saugus  " 
(Lynn),  and  Johnson  of  the  "earldom  of  Agawam" 
(Ipswich) . 

The  original  missionary  intention  of  the  Puritan 
colonists  toward  this  native  people  was  expressly  de- 
clared in  the  charter,  and  shortly  illustrated  in  the 
apostolic  labours  of  Eliot ;  it  was  attested  also  in  the 
device  of  the  colony  seal,  —  a  savage  armed  with 
bow  and  arrow  (as  on  the  present  State  seal)  and 
issuing  from  his  mouth  the  motto,  "  Come  over  and 
help  us."  In  the  company's  letters  to  Endicott  be- 
fore Winthrop  sailed,  it  is  much  insisted  on,  that 
the  purpose  of  their  evangelization  shall  be  kept  in 
view.  They  must  be  courteously  and  honestly  dealt 
with,  and  all  offences  against  them  strictly  punished. 
The  effort  must  be  diligently  made  to  teach  and 
train  their  children  "  whilest  they  are  yonge."  In 
particular,  if  they  lay  claim  "  to  all  or  any  part  of 
the  lands  granted  in  our  patent,"  —  claim  compara- 
ble to  that  of  the  Pigmies  to  the  Aruwimi  Forest,  — 
the  endeavour  must  be  "  to  purchase  their  title  so 
that  we  may  avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intrusion." 
The  Colony  Records  very  abundantly  show  that  great 


INDIAN  RELATION'S.  85 

care  was  used  by  the  government  to  secure  these 
poor  wild  neighbours  Christian  treatment.  It  is  a 
false  charge  that  alleges  the  contrary.  The  sentence 
against  Thomas  Morton  that  has  been  referred  to,  is 
one  of  a  very  numerous  class  of  penalties  awarded 
by  the  Court  for  injuries  done  them.  Winthrop's 
Journal  throughout  is  witness  that  their  conversion 
was  never  out  of  his  thoughts.  At  a  certain  conjunc- 
tion of  affairs  relating  to  them,  which  occurred 
toward  the  close  of  his  life,  he  says  :  — 

"  We  now  began  to  conceive  that  the  Lord's  time  was 
at  hand  for  opening  a  door  of  light  and  grace  to  those 
Indians,  and  some  fruit  appeared  of  our  kind  dealing 
with  them  and  protecting  them,  and  righting  them." 

Notwithstanding  they  betrayed  in  general  no  dis- 
position of  hostility  on  the  first  appearance  of  the 
emigrants* it  was  deemed  a  wise  precaution,  consider- 
ing the  exposure,  to  organize  a  night-watch  on  their 
account  in  the  several  settlements.  The  fear  of  them 
that  was  felt  is  reflected  in  a  lively  narration  by  Dud- 
ley, of  an  alarm  which  arose  from  the  firing  of  mus- 
kets at  Watertown  to  scare  the  wolves  away  from  a 
strayed  calf,  and  spread  to  Roxbury  and  thence  to 
Boston,  turning  the  whole  population  out  of  bed.  "  So 
in  the  morning,"  he  concludes,  "the  calf  being  found 
safe,  the  wolves  affrighted,  and  our  danger  past,  we 
went  merrily  to  breakfast."  But  the  next  Court  or- 
dered that  whoever  fired  a  musket  again  for  such  a 
cause  after  the  watch  was  set,  should  pay  a  fine  of 
forty  shillings  or  be  whipped. 


86  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

It  is  amusing  to  read  the  governor's  account  — 
and  there  is  a  recognizable  flavour  of  amusement  in 
it ;  very  grave  though  —  of  some  of  the  hospitalities 
he  was  incidentally  called  to  exercise  in  his  Indian 
diplomacy.  Thus  in  March,  1631,  the  great  Chick- 
atabot  came,  with  his  "  sannops  and  squaws,"  and  a 
present  of  corn,  to  visit  him. 

"  After  they  had  all  dined  and  had  each  a  small  cup  of 
sack  and  beer,  and  the  men  tobacco,  he  sent  away  all  his 
men  and  women,  (though  the  governor  would  have 
stayed  them  in  regard  of  the  rain  and  thunder).  Him- 
self and  one  squaw  and  one  sannop  stayed  all  night,  and, 
being  in  English  clothes,  the  governor  set  him  at  his 
own  table,  where  he  behaved  himself  as  soberly,  etc.,  as 
an  Englishman." 

Three  weeks  later,  — 

"  Chickatabot  came  to  the  governor  and  desired  to  buy 
some  English  clothes  for  himself.  The  governor  told 
him  that  English  sagamores  did  not  use  to  truck ;  but 
he  called  his  tailor,  and  gave  him  order  to  make  him  a 
suit  of  clothes  ;  whereupon  he  gave  the  governor  two  large 
skins  of  coat  beaver,  and  after  he  and  his  men  had  dined 
they  departed,  and  said  he  would  come  again  three  days 
after  for  his  suit." 

Which  he  punctually  did ;  and  the  tailor  was  punctual 
too,  — 

"  Chickatabot  came  to  the  governor  again,  and  he  put 
him  into  a  very  good  new  suit  from  head  to  foot,  and 
after  he  set  meat  before  them  ;  but  he  would  not  eat  till 
the  governor  had  given  thanks,  and  after  meat  he  desired 
him  to  do  the  like,  and  so  departed." 


THE  GOVERNOR  AS  PASTOR.  87 

These  scenes  solicit  Fancy  to  try  her  pencil  upon 
them.  It  was  but  a  little  over  a  year  since  Winthrop 
had  bid  adieu  to  that  fair  Suffolk  hall  where  he  was 
wont  to  have  the  choicest  of  England  for  his  guests. 
There  were  certainly  queer  contrasts  in  the  life  of 
the  lord  of  Groton  Manor. 

Other  like  visitors  the  governor  had  in  those  days  : 
among  them  a  sachem  from  Connecticut,  attended 
by  Jack  Straw,  "  an  Indian  who  had  lived  in  England 
and  served  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  was  now  turned 
Indian  again,"  who  made  tempting  overtures  look- 
ing to  a  white  settlement  in  his  country;  but  the 
governor,  learning  that  he  was  at  war,  scented  an 
ulterior  design  and  turned  him  off,  though  not  till 
he  was  well  fed.  jftft f««*W  ^ Jjft  ^dre* and  rfjsfr 
creet  management,  he  established  terms  of  amity 
with  trie  savage  people  that  were  unbroken  for  a  good 
while. 

To  his  multifarious  civil  functions  in  these  difficult 
times  were  added  others ;  for  Elder  Wilson,  pre- 
vious to  setting  out  for  England  in  the  spring  (1631) 
to  bring  over  his  family,  designated  the  governor  as 
one  of  three  members  of  the  Boston  congregation 
most  fit  for  "  the  exercise  of  prophecy "  in  his  ab- 
sence ;  and  so  he  had  to  take  his  turn  at  preaching. 

It  required,  however,  no  special  commission  to 
charge  the  governor  with  the  moral  oversight  ot 
his  colony.  How  he  exemplified  the  fatherly  char- 
acter in  this  field  is  suggested  by  an  entry  in  the 
Journal  at  about  the  date  of  the  transfer  from 
Charlestown :  — 


88  JOHN  WINTHROP, 

"  The  governor,  upon  consideration  of  the  incon- 
veniencies  which  had  grown  in  England  by  drinking  one 
to  another,  restrained  it  at  his  own  table  and  wished 
others  to  do  the  like,  so  as  it  grew  by  little  and  little  to 
disuse." 

The  doleful  winter  at  length  wore  away ;  and  though 
there  was  scarceness  still,  the  warmer  suns,  the  abate- 
ment of  the  sickness,  and  the  opportunity  for  work, 
combined  to  lighten  the  load  of  all  hearts. 

In  the  deficiency  of  the  peninsula  for  their  farming 
needs,  the  Boston  settlers  occupied  lands  contiguous. 
Winthrop  fixed  on  Mystic,  on  the  river,  in  from 
Charlestown  Neck  toward  Medford  village  ;  the  Court 
giving  him  title  there  to  six  hundred  acres,  —  named 
by  him  Ten  Hills ;  that  number  of  hills  to  be  seen 
from  it;  so  called  to  this  day,  —  where  he  built  a 
house  for  summer  use.  Where,  also,  by  the  beginning 
of  July,  1 63 1,  he  had  launched  a  bark  of  thirty  tons, 
christened  "The  Blessing  of  the  Bay,"  —  name  not  at 
all  prosaic,  half  sportive,  it  seems ;  at  any  rate,  indica- 
tive of  a  cheerful  spirit  in  him.  "The  Blessing,"  as 
she  was  familiarly  styled,  proved  a  nimble  craft,  and 
immediately  became  active  in  the  public  service,  voy- 
aging to  Maine,  to  Connecticut,  to  Long  Island,  to 
New  Netherlands,  —  from  which  last,  in  1633,  she 
brought  Winthrop  a  letter  from  its  governor,  "  called 
Gwalter  Van  Twilly,  very  courteous  and  respectful  as 
it  had  been  to  a  very  honourable  person." 

Not  more  thrifty  was  Frederick  the  Great  for  his 
kingdom,  nor  Queen  Elizabeth  for  hers,  than  was 
ever  the  first  governor  of  Massachusetts  for  his  little 


ADVENTURES  AT  MYSTIC.  89 

commonwealth.  The  higher  character  and  ends  of 
the  enterprise  in  which  he  was  enlisted  unfailingly 
held  the  foremost  place  in  his  regard.  But  he  had 
withal  a  just  appreciation  of  the  material  elements  of 
success,  and  a  quick  sagacious  eye  always  to  its  inter- 
ests in  that  direction.  A  generally  complete  view  of 
the  colony  development  on  this  side  is  deducible 
from  the  Journal.  He  pushed  trade  zealously  from 
the  outset,  —  a  little  too  zealously  his  neighbours  of 
Plymouth  thought,  finding  their  preserves  invaded. 

It  was  at  Ten  Hills,  in  the  fall  of  1631,  that  while 
resting  there  from  cares  of  state  and  looking  after  his 
property,  he  had  an  adventure,  his  report  of  which, 
for  the  revealing  hints  of  one  kind  and  another  it 
affords,  is  worth  quoting :  — 

"  The  governour,  being  at  his  farm  house  at  Mistick, 
walked  out  after  supper,  and  took  a  piece  in  his  hand, 
supposing  he  might  see  a  wolf,  (for  they  came  daily  about 
the  house,  and  killed  swine  and  calves,  etc. ;)  and,  being 
about  half  a  mile  off,  it  grew  suddenly  dark,  so  as,  in 
coming  home,  he  mistook  his  path,  and  went  till  he  came 
to  a  little  house  of  Sagamore  John,  which  stood  empty. 
There  he  stayed,  and  having  a  piece  of  match  in  his 
pocket,  (for  he  always  carried  about  him  match  and  a 
compass,  and  in  summer  time  snakeweed,)  he  made  a  good 
fire  near  the  house,  and  lay  down  upon  some  old  mats, 
which  he  found  there,  and  so  spent  the  night,  sometimes 
walking  by  the  fire,  sometimes  singing  psalms,  and  some- 
times getting  wood,  but  could  not  sleep.  It  was  (through 
God's  mercy)  a  warm  night ;  but  a  little  before  day  it  be- 
gan to  rain,  and,  having  no  cloak,  he  made  shift  by  a  long 
pole  to  climb  up  into  the  house.  In  the  morning,  there 
came  thither  an  Indian  squaw,  but  perceiving  her  before 


90  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

she  had  opened  the  door,  he  barred  her  out ;  yet  she 
stayed  there  a  great  while  essaying  to  get  in,  and  at  last 
she  went  away,  and  he  returned  safe  home,  his  servants 
having  been  much  perplexed  for  him,  and  having  walked 
about,  and  shot  off  pieces,  and  hallooed  in  the  night,  but 
he  heard  them  not." 

A  little  after  this,  with  a  considerable  attendance, 
he  paid  an  official  and  friendly  visit  on  foot  —  a  rough 
tramp  it  must  have  been  —  to  Lynn  and  Salem ;  at 
which  latter  Endicott  entertained  him  with  honour 
and  such  bounty  as  he  could. 

But  the  supreme  event  of  the  year,  that  was  to  dis- 
pel its  shadows  and  crown  its  mercies  to  Winthrop, 
was  now  close  at  hand,  —  the  arrival  of  his  family. 
In  a  letter  to  Margaret  in  March,  —  the  last  she  had 
from  him  in  England,  —  speaking  of  his  anticipation 
thereof,  he  said  :  — 

"  These  things  I  durst  scarce  think  of  heretofore  ;  but 
now  I  embrace  them  oft,  and  delight  my  heart  in  them, 
because  I  trust,  that  the  Lord,  our  God,  who  hath  kept  me 
and  so  many  of  my  company  in  health  and  safety  among 
so  many  dead  corpses,  through  the  heat  of  the  summer 
and  the  cold  of  winter,  and  hath  also  preserved  thee 
in  the  peril  of  childbirth,*  and  upheld  thy  heart  in  the 
midst  of  so  many  discouragements,  with  the  life  of  all  thy 
company,  will,  of  his  own  goodness  and  free  mercy,  pre- 
serve us  and  ours  still,  that  we  shall  meet  in  joy  and 
peace,  which  I  daily  pray  for,  and  shall  expect  in  the 
Lord's  good  time." 

Most  of  his  correspondence  in  the  interval  of 
their  separation  had  been  with  John,  Jr.,  on  whom  fell 
the  care  of  all  preparation  for  the  approaching  jour- 


ARRIVAL   OF  HIS  FAMILY.  91 

ney,  and  mainly  concerned  that  business.  The  chief 
matter  involved  was  the  sale  of  the  homestead  at 
Groton,  which  was  at  last  effected,  though  at  a  sacri- 
fice. Winthrop  had  appraised  it  at  ,£5,760.  It 
brought  £4,200.  In  his  instructions  regarding  outfit, 
taught  by  experience,  he  laid  much  emphasis  on  the 
provision  stock.  He  was  also  particular  on  the 
subject  of  medicines,  which  was  natural  under  the 
circumstances ;  but  he  was  always  a  good  deal  of  a 
doctor,  as  crops  out  in  both  his  letters  and  the  Jour- 
nal by  frequent  signs,  of  which  the  snakeweed  in  his 
pocket  when  he  was  lost  is  a  specimen.  When  he 
lay  dying  in  1649,  m  ^e  public  exercises  of  a  solemn 
fast  for  his  recovery,  it  was  named  among  his  eminent 
services  that  he  had  been  "  an  help  to  our  bodies  by 
physick." 

Margaret  and  her  company,  with  John  Eliot  for 
fellow-passenger,  sailed  in  August  by  the  same  ship  — 
the  Lyon  —  that  brought  relief  to  the  famished  Bay 
in  Februaiy.  The  passage  was  nearly  as  long  as  the 
Arbella's ;  but  on  the  2d  of  November  the  Lyon  was 
reported  at  anchor  off  Nantasket,  whither  the  gov- 
ernor —  back  just  in  time  from  his  Salem  trip  — 
hastened,  and  beheld  once  more  the  face  that  was 
sweetest  on  earth  to  him.  It  smiled  on  him  through 
tears,  however.  There  was  a  sad  check  to  the  first 
gladness  of  the  meeting;  for  Margaret's  babe  was 
not  in  her  arms,  and  she  had  to  tell  of  its  burial  at 
sea  nine  weeks  before. 

The  public  congratulation  was  fervent  in  the  ex- 
treme, and  evidence  of  Winthrop's  place  in  the  gen- 


92  .     JOHN  WINTHROP. 

leral.heart.  When  the  Lyon  moved  up  into  Boston 
harbour,  "  at  their  landing,  the  captains,  with  their 
companies  in  arms,  entertained  them  with  a  guard, 
and  divers  vollies  of  shot,  and  three  drakes ;  and  divers 
of  the  assistants  and  most  of  the  people  of  the  near 
plantations,  came  to  welcome  them,  and  brought  and 
sent,  for  divers  days,  great  store  of  provisions,  as  fat 
hogs,  kids,  venison,  poultry,  geese,  partridges,  etc., 
so  as  the  like  joy  and  manifestation  of  love  had  never 
been  seen  in  New  England.  It  was  a  great  marvel, 
that  so  much  people  and  such  store  of  provisions 
could  be  gathered  together  at  so  few  hours'  warning." 
Boston  further  celebrated  the  happy  occasion  by  a 
day  of  thanksgiving.  The  joy  was  felt  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  Bay,  as  the  good  news  sped.  Governor 
Bradford  came  up  from  Plymouth  to  testify  in  person 
his  sympathy  with  it. 

So  the  governor  had  his  living  family  —  all  but 
Deane,  nine  years  old,  left  behind  at  school  —  with 
him  again  and  around  his  board.  There  was  Mar- 
garet, on  whom  to  look  purged  his  bosom  of  trouble 
and  filled  him  with  content ;  there  was  good  son  John, 
with  his  lately  wedded  bride  ;  and  Mary,  and  Stephen, 
and  Adam,  and  little  Sam.  Vacant  places,  too,  there 
were ;  but  great  was  the  gratitude  of  the  master  of 
that  household.  It  was  a  rude  dwelling  to  which  he 
introduced  them.  How  pure  and  elevated  the  in- 
fluences pervading  the  home  life  there  resumed  is 
suggested  by  an  exquisite  passage  which  the  governor 
by  and  by,  in  a  season  of  many  public  solicitudes, 
turned  his  pen  aside,  as  it  were,  to  inscribe  in  the 


BOSTON.  93 

Journal.  He  has  interrupted  his  wonted  strain  of 
business  to  speak  of  the  spiritual  experience  of  certain 
young  children  of  "  one  of  the  magistrates,"  —  writing 
in  the  third  person  as  usual  and  naming  no  names, 
but  he  can  refer  to  no  one  but  himself,  —  and  thus 
continues  :  —  '  '  *' 

"  Upon  this  occasion  it  is  not  impertinent  (though  no 
credit  nor  regard  be  to  be  had  of  dreams  in  these  days)  to 
report  a  dream,  which  the  father  of  these  children  had  at 
the  same  time,  viz.,  that,  coming  into  his  chamber,  he  found 
his  wife  (she  was  a  very  gracious  woman)  in  bed,  and 
three  or  four  of  their  children  lying  by  her,  with  most 
sweet  and  smiling  countenances,  with  crowns  upon  their 
heads  and  blue  ribbons  about  their  leaves.  When  he 
awaked,  he  told  his  wife  his  dream,  and  made  this  inter- 
pretation of  it,  that  God  would  take  of  her  children  to 
make  them  fellow  heirs  with  Christ  in  his  kingdom." 

In  the  course  of  the  winter  of  1631-1632  the  gov- 
vernor  found  time  to  explore  inland  somewhat,  this 
way  and  that,  —  eight  miles  beyond  Watertown  up 
the  Charles,  northward  above  Medford,  southward  in 
the  Neponset  region,  —  and  everywhere  he  went  he 
left  names.  A  tributary  of  the  Charles  was  called 
Masters  Brook,  "  because  the  eldest  of  their  company 
was  one  John  Masters ;  "  and  a  Jiuge  split  boulder 
Adam's  Chair,  "  because  the  youngest  of  their  com- 
pany was  Adam  Winthrop."  This  was  fun  for  Adam, 
it  is  safe  to  guess  :  he  was  twelve  years  old.  On 
the  Medford  expedition  "a  very  great  pond"  was 
discovered,  with  "  divers  small  rocks  standing  up  here 
and  there  in  it,"  and  called  for  that  reason  Spot  Pond 


94  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

(so  named  still)  ;  and  a  rock  where  they  lunched 
"  they  called  Cheese  Rock,  because,  when  they  went 
to  eat  somewhat,  they  had  only  cheese,  —  the  gov- 
ernor's man  forgetting  in  haste  to  put  up  some 
bread."  Evidently  no  want  of  blithe  spirits  on  these 
excursions. 


SIMMER  OF  THE  POLITICAL   CALDRON.      95 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SIMMER   OF   THE   POLITICAL   CALDRON. 
(1631-1633.) 

But  the  governor  had  on  hand  at  about  this  time 
matters  less  agreeable  than  those  with  which  the  last 
chapter  concluded,  —  a  complication  of  them,  in  fact. 
The  most  vexatious  to  him  was  a  difference  —  begin- 
ning of  a  series  of  differences  —  in  which  he  became 
personally  involved  with  Deputy-Governor  Dudley. 
That  such  a  thing  occurred  at  all,  is,  considering  the 
character  of  the  two  men,  —  though  Dudley  was  by 
constitution  touchy,  —  to  be  largely  attributed  to  the 
situation ;  in  some  points  resembling  that  of  the  rear 
column  of  the  Emin  Pasha  Relief  Expedition;  ex- 
tremely harassing;  calculated  to  subject  the  temper 
of  those  thrown  together  in  leadership  to  severe 
strain.  The  origin  of  the  trouble  is  obscure ;  but 
from  Winthrop's  own  report  it  appears  to  have  started 
in  a  soreness  on  Dudley's  part,  produced  by  Win- 
throp's disapproval  of  certain  bargains  he  had  made 
as  hard ;  by  the  governor's  criticism,  also,  of  a  house 
the  deputy  was  building  at  Newtown  (name  changed 
to  Cambridge  in  1638,  till  when  we  will  call  it  New- 
town only)  as  too  expensive. 


\ 


96  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

As  Dudley  was  several  years  Winthrop's  senior,  and 
a  person  of  honourable  degree,,  it  naturally  required 
much  grace  to  take  such  faithful  dealing  with  entire 
meekness,  —  more,  it  seems,  than  the  deputy  had. 

The  first  open  manifestation  of  his  disaffected 
state  was  his  quitting  a  session  of  the  Assistants' 
Court  in  April,  1632,  leaving  in  the  hands  of  the 
secretary  his  resignation.  This  the  Court  did  not 
accept,  but  invited  Dudley  to  a  conference  about  it ; 
at  which  conference  he  gave  as  the  reason  of  his 
action,  that  it  was  his  only  way  to  avoid  freeing  his 
mind  on  some  subjects,  as  for  the  public  peace  he 
would  prefer  not  to  do.  To  the  opinion  of  all  the 
magistrates  that  it  was  not  allowable  to  relinquish 
office  in  that  fashion,  he  replied  that  his  opinion,  by 
which  he  proposed  to  be  guided,  was  different.  Upon 
mention  of  his  hard  bargains  he  waxed  wrathy,  "  tell- 
ing the  governor  that  if  he  had  thought  he  had  sent 
for  him  to  his  house  to  give  him  such  usage  he  would 
not  have  come  there."  He  averred  that  the  trans- 
actions in  question  were  lawful,  "  and  that  he  never 
knew  any  man  of  understanding  of  other  opinion ; 
and  that  the  governor  thought  otherwise  of  it,  it 
was  his  weakness."  "  The  governor,"  the  Journal 
proceeds,  "  took  notice  of  these  speeches,  and  bare 
them  with  more  patience  than  he  had  done  on  a 
like  occasion  at  another  time."  With  regard  to  the 
wainscot,  which,  it  comes  out,  was  the  special  offence 
of  the  new  house,  the  deputy  declared  that  "  it  was  for 
warmth,  and  the  charge  was  little,  being  but  clap- 
boards nailed  to  the  wall  in  the  form  of  wainscot." 


THE    WRATH  OF  DUDLEY.  97 

But  Winthrop  somehow  privately  succeeded  in 
soothing  his  friend's  irritation  for  the  time  ;  for  at  the 
annual  Court  of  Elections,  a  few  days  on  (May  8), 
the  whole  government  being  continued  in  office, 
Dudley  "  accepted  of  his  place  again,  and  the  gover- 
nor and  he  being  reconciled  the  day  before,  all  things 
were  carried  very  lovingly  amongst  them  all,  etc." 

This  proved,  however,  only  a  truce.  The  variance 
shortly  revived,  and  grew  to  such  a  pitch  that  in 
August  the  two  principals  and  five  of  the  leading 
ministers  met  at  Charlestown  to  have  the  matter 
out,  and  see  what  could  be  done  about  it.  There,  at 
length,  Dudley  did  free  his  mind.  Having  the  floor, 
he  began  by  saying  that,  passing  some  particular 
grievances  (probably  the  more  private),  he  would 
"come  first  to  complain  of  the  breach  of  promise 
both  in  the  governor  and  others  in  not  building 
at  Newtown."  From  which  (and  the  reply  to  it)  we 
learn  that  a  plan  at  one  time  agreed  upon  to  make 
Newtown  the  colony  capital,  had  been  given  up,  but 
not  till  Dudley,  on  the  strength  of  it,  had  put  up  there 
that  extravagant  log  mansion  of  his. 

For  himself,  Winthrop's  answer  was,  "  that  he  had 
performed  the  words  of  the  promise ;  for  he  had  a 
house  up,  and  seven  or  eight  servants  abiding  in  it, 
by  the  day  appointed :  and  for  the  removing  of  his 
house,  he  alleged,  that,  seeing  that  the  rest  of  the 
Assistants  went  not  about  to  build,  and  that  his 
neighbours  of  Boston  had  been  discouraged  from 
removing  thither  by  Mr.  Deputy  himself,  and  there- 
upon had   (under  all  their   hands)  petitioned  him, 


98  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

that  (according  to  the  promise  he  made  to  them 
when  they  first  sate  down  with  him  at  Boston,  viz., 
that  he  would  not  remove,  except  they  went  with 
him)  he  would  not  leave  them ;  —  this  was  the  occa- 
sion that  he  removed  his  house." 

Upon  this  count,  the  ministers,  retiring  for  con- 
sultation, found  that  the  governor  was  excusable  "a 
tanto  but  not  a  to  to  ;  "  that  he  "  was  in  fault  for  re- 
moving of  his  house  so  suddenly,  without  conferring 
with  the  deputy  and  the  rest  of  the  Assistants:" 
which  fault  the  governor  willingly  acknowledged. 
So  far  so  good ;  but  there  was  more  to  follow. 
After  an  intermission  for  dinner,  the  deputy  resumed, 
at  first  in  a  mild  strain,  saying  that  what  he  should 
now  bring  forward  would  be  "  in  love  and  out  of 
his  care  of  the  public,  not  by  way  of  accusation, 
but  for  his  own  satisfaction."  He  then  proceeded 
to  some  very  searching  inquiries  on  subjects  of  great 
moment,  which  immediately  touched  the  governor 
to  the  quick.  He  desired |  Jo  |  kpQy„,flif  hi™  Jitha*.^^ 
ground, _and r )i„miK ,tfrl  ;i  ■■^fc **ky**'>'^' >«w*^>iy*«w»i»*^» 
patent  or  otherwise."  So  here  was  the  root  of 
the  deputy's  discontent,  after  all.  The  governor 
fired  upat  once :  he  had,  he  said,  the  authority  the 
patent  gave  him.  "Then,"  said  the  deputy,  "' ex- 
cept power  to  call  courts,  and  precedency  for  honour 
and  order,'  you  have  no  more  authority  than  every 
Assistant."  "  I  have  more,"  cried  the  governor ;  "I 
have  whatsoever  belongs  to  a  governor  by  common 
law  or  the  statutes  ;  and  T  desire  you  to  show  wherein 
I  have  exceeded  it !  " 


THE    WRATH  OF  DUDLEY.  99 

"Speaking  this  somewhat  apprehensively"  (we 
return  to  the  Journal,  this  is  Winthrop's  own  ac- 
count, be  it  remembered) ,  "  the  deputy  began  to  be 
in  a  passion,  and  told  the  governor  that  if  he  were 
so  round  he  would  be  round  too.  The  governor 
bade  him  be  round  if  he  would.  So  the  deputy  rose 
up  in  great  fury  and  passion,  and  the  governor  grew 
very  hot  also,  so  as  they  both  fell  into  bitterness; 
but  by  mediation  of  the  mediators  they  were  soon 
pacified." 

Order  being  restored,  the  deputy  went  on  to  name 
a  list  of  particulars  in  which,  in  his  judgment,  the 
governor  had  exceeded  his  right.  He  wanted  to 
know  by  what  authority  he  had  removed  the  ordnance 
and  erected  a  fort  at  Boston ;  by  what  authority  he 
had  lent  powder  to  Plymouth ;  by  what  authority  he 
had  licensed  a  certain  person  to  settle  at  Merrimack ; 
by  what  authority  he  had  given  leave  for  the  erection 
of  a  fish  weir  upon  Charles  River ;  by  what  authority 
he  had  disposed  of  lands  to  divers  parties ;  by  what 
authority  he  had  allowed  certain  banished  persons  to 
linger  in  the  colony ;  by  what  authority  certain  fines 
decreed  by  the  Court  had  not  been  enforced;  by 
what  authority  he  had  reopened  cases  once  adjudi- 
cated by  the  Court,  and  moved  to  alter  the  sentence. 

So  the  governor's  executive  sins,  as  the  deputy 
conceived  them,  were  set  in  order  before  him.  To 
these  interrogations  Winthrop,  lawyer-like,  claimed 
that,  as  the  charges  conveyed  in  them  were  unknown 
to  him  till  that  moment,  and  as  for  his  official  acts  he 
was  accountable  only  to  the  Court,  he  might  justly 


ioo  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

refuse  answer.  Yet,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  to 
clear  himself  with  the  mediators  present,  and  to  dis- 
abuse the  deputy  of  the  absurd  notion  that  he  had 
sought  "  to  make  himself  popular  that  he  might  gain 
absolute  power  and  bring  all  the  Assistants  under 
his  subjection,"  he  would  answer  them ;  which  he 
did,  seriatim,  and  on  the  whole  successfully.  But  he 
owned  that  in  the  case  of  the  unenforced  penalties, 
he  had,  from  motives  of  humanity,  no  doubt  stretched 
his  prerogative.  As  for  that,  though,  he  could  easily 
prove  that  the  deputy  in  his  place  had  done  the 
same.  He  "  desired  the  mediators  to  consider, 
whether  he  had  exceeded  his  authority  or  not,  and 
how  little  cause  the  deputy  had  to  charge  him  with 
it;  for  if  he  had  made  some  slips  in  two  or  three 
years'  government,  he  ought  rather  to  have  covered 
them,  seeing  he  could  not  be  charged  that  he  had 
taken  advantage  of  his  authority  to  oppress  or  wrong 
any  man,  or  to  benefit  himself;  but,  for  want  of  a 
public  stock,  had  disbursed  all  common  charges  out 
of  his  own  estate." 

The  meeting  having  closed  —  as  it  had  opened  - — 
with  prayer,  "the  governor  brought  the  deputy  on- 
ward of  his  way,  and  every  man  went  to  his  own 
home."  The  mediating  elders,  whose  position  was 
certainly  not  enviable,  in  due  time  announced  the 
result, — which  Winthrop  accepted,  —  that  for  the 
relief  of  Newtown,  left  in  the  lurch  by  the  change  of 
plan  about  the  seat  of  government,  the  governor 
should  obtain  the  people  there  a  minister,  and  assist 
in  his  maintenance  for  a  season ;  or,  did  that  prove 


THE    WRATH  OF  DUDLEY.  101 

impracticable,  that  he  should  "give  the  deputy 
toward  his  charges  in  building  there  twenty  pounds." 
The  minister  could  not  be  procured,  as  turned  out, 
and  the  twenty  pounds  were  paid;  which  Dudley 
returned  "with  this  reason  to  Mr.  Wilson,"  one  of  the 
mediators,  —  who  saw  that  it  got  to  the  proper  ear,  — 
"  that  he  was  so  well  persuaded  of  the  governor's  love 
to  him,  and  did  prize  it  so  much,  as,  if  they  had 
given  him  one  hundred  pounds  instead  of  twenty 
pounds,  he  would  not  have  taken  it." 

Thence  on  for  another  while  the  sky  was  clear, — 
for  such  a  while  that  Winthrop  turned  back  the 
leaves  of  the  journal  to  insert,  just  after  the  above 
extract :  "  Notwithstanding  the  heat  of  contention, 
which  had  been  between  the  governour  and  deputy, 
yet  they  usually  met  about  their  affairs,  and  that 
without  any  appearance  of  any  breach  or  discontent ; 
and  ever  after  kept  peace  and  good  correspondency 
together,  in  love  and  friendship." 

But  the  announcement  was  premature.  The  clouds 
gathered  again.  In  November,  1633  (this  runs 
ahead  of  our  history  a  little,  but  we  may  as  well  finish 
the  episode) ,  Dudley  took  umbrage  at  what  he  reck- 
oned an  inequitable  levy  on  Newtown  for  labour  on 
the  fortifications  of  Boston,  and  flatly  declined  to 
furnish  it.  Winthrop  "wrote  friendly  to  him,"  but 
failed  to  mollify  him  j  he  remained  stiffly  mutinous. 
Mr.  John  Haynes  and  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  (just 
come  from  England,  and  Dudley's  guests,)  went  to 
see  the  governor  about  the  matter,  carrying  with 
them  a  letter  from  the  deputy,  which,  upon  reading, 


102  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

his  Excellency  found  "  full  of  bitterness,"  and  pres- 
ently handed  it  back  to  Mr.  Hooker,  saying,  "  I  am 
not  willing  to  keep  such  an  occasion  of  provocation 
by  me."     But  the  governor  had  learned  his  man. 

"  Soon  after  he  wrote  to  the  deputy  (who  had  before 
desired  to  buy  a  fat  hog  or  two  of  him,  being  somewhat 
short  of  provisions)  to  desire  him  to  send  for  one,  (which 
he  would  have  sent  him,  if  he  had  known  when  his  occa- 
sion had  been  to  have  made  use  of  it,)  and  to  accept  it  as 
a  testimony  of  his  good  will ;  and,  lest  he  should  make 
any  scruple  of  it,  he  made  Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr.  Hooker 
(who  both  sojourned  in  his  house)  partakers  with  him. 
Upon  this  the  deputy  returned  this  answer  :  '  Your  over- 
coming yourself  hath  overcome  me.  Mr.  Haynes,  Mr. 
Hooker,  and  myself  do  most  kindly  accept  your  good 
will ;  but  we  desire,  without  offence,  to  refuse  your  offer, 
and  that  I  may  only  trade  with  you  for  two  hogs  ; '  and  so 
very  lovingly  concluded." 

An  incident  set  down  in  the  Journal  a  good  dis- 
tance further  on,  in  1638,  —  by  which  time  the  gov- 
ernor's Mary  had  become  the  deputy's  daughter-in- 
law,  —  reveals  the  issue  of  all  controversy  between 
these  worthy  gentlemen. 

"  The  governour  and  deputy  [who  have  not  been  gov- 
ernor and  deputy  the  whole  interval,  but  are  so  now  again] 
went  to  Concord  to  view  some  land  for  farms,  and  going 
down  the  river  about  four  miles,  they  made  choice  of  a 
place  for  one  thousand  acres  for  each  of  them.  They 
offered  each  other  the  first  choice,  but  because  the  deputy's 
was  first  granted,  and  himself  had  store  of  land  already, 
the  governour  yielded  him  the  choice.  So,  at  the  place 
where  the  deputy's  land  was  to  begin,  there  were  two  great 


THE  FREEMEN  DISSATISFIED.  103 

stones,  which  they  called  the  Two  Brothers,  in  remem- 
brance that  they  were  brothers  by. their  children's  mar- 
riage, and  did  so  brotherly  agree,  and  for  that  a  little  creek 
near  those  stones  was  to  part  their  lands." 

The  summer  of  1631  also  brought  the  beginning 
of  that  political  controversy  that  in  one  form  and 
another  was  to  vex  the  colony  for  many  years,  and 
in  which  Winthrop  bore  the  most  conspicuous  part.  & 
No  sooner  was  the  pressure  of  the  winter's  misery 
relieved,  than  the  freemen  bethought  them  of  the 
shape  the  government  had  assumed,  —  the  powers 
thereof,  legislative,  judicial,  executive,  all  lodged  in 
a  few  hands,  their  own  share  reduced  to  the  mini- 
mum,—  and  found  themselves  dissatisfied.  It  had, 
indeed,  reverted  to  the  type  of  an  almost  patriarchal 
simplicity.  The  handful  of  magistrates  by  theory 
followed  the  rule  of  the  common  law  of  England ; 
but  there  was  no  code,  and  practically  causes,  as  they 
arose,  were  determined  at  their  discretion,  or  as  the 
Scriptures  were  by  them  thought  to  prescribe.  The 
government  was,  in  short,  a  theocracy  administered 
by  an  oligarchy.  Such  it  was  impossible  for  it  there 
to  remain.  Evolution  out  of  that  simplicity  into  the 
articulate  system  of  a  free  state  was  inevitable  in  a 
community  which  held  the  materials  of  it  in  solution. 
"All  the  factors  of  previous  living  —  home,  church, 
military  organization,  political  representation  —  were 
enfolded  in  the  families  and  persons  of  these  English 
men  and  women." 

In  several  points  of  view  the  "existing  conditions 
specially  favoured  the  development  that  was  soon  in 


104  JOHN  WJNTHROP. 

process.  The  charter  favoured  it.  The  Massachusetts 
Bay  Company  had  projected  no  such  outcome;  for 
that  matter,  they  intended  and  believed  in  the  rule 
of  the  few.  But  the  charter  itself  stood  in  their 
way,  as  it  proved.  They  who  framed  it  most  em- 
phatically "builded  better  than  they  knew."  The 
compulsory  dispersion  of  the  colony  into  separate 
plantations  favoured  it;  for  of  it  came,  by  natural 
consequence,  the  municipality  of  the  town,  —  most 
potent  of  all  circumstances  to  generate  ideas  that 
would  antagonize  the  civil  order  established,  and 
gradually  replace  it  with  republican  institutions.  The 
slow  and  moderate  increase  of  the  colony  at  first, 
■^  favoured  it.  For  a  whole  year  after  the  Winthrop  emi- 
gration less  than  a  hundred  joined  it ;  and  down  to 
1634,  —  when  Laud  set  the  stream  aflow  again,  —  only 
about  a  thousand  in  all.  This  small  accession  —  small 
compared  with  what  had  been  calculated  on — was  due 
to  the  rumour  at  home  of  the  hardships  of  the  colony, 
and  to  other  malicious  ill  reports  of  it,  and  was  a 
great  disappointment.  But  it  was  a  very  fortunate 
thing.  With  a  vital  and  delicate  work  of  political 
readjustment  going  on,  it  was  well  that  the  body  of 
freemen  participating  in  it  —  no  more  than  three 
hundred  and  fifty  were  admitted  to  the  franchise  in 
those  three  years  —  should  be;  as  it  was,  composed 
of  those  who  stood  on  terms  of  personal  acquaintance 
and  respect.  The  influx  of  a  crowd  of  strangers  would 
have  seriously  enhanced  the  difficulties  of  the  situation. 
The  first  distinct  intimation  of  a  rising  concern  on 
the  part   of  the  commons  regarding  their  position, 


THE  FREEMEN  MUTTER.  105 

is  Winthrop's  note  in  the  Journal  that  at  the  confer- 
ence (May,  1632)  about  Dudley's  resignation,  he 
communicated  the  fact  "  that  he  had  heard  that  the 
people  intended  at  the  next  General  Court  to  desire 
that  the  Assistants  might  be  chosen  anew  every  year, 
and  that  the  governor  might  be  chosen  by  the  whole 
Court  and  not  by  the  Assistants  only." 

This  was  startling,  unacceptable  news.  Assistant 
Roger  Ludlow,  of  Dorchester,  on  hearing  it,  "  grew 
into  a  passion,  and  said  that  then  we  should  have  no 
government,  but  that  there  would  be  an  interim 
wherein  every  man  might  do  what  he  pleased,  etc.,'' 
and  declared  that  did  such  a  thing  come  about,  he 
would  go  back  to  England.  <-<^ 

A  previous  occurrence,  however,  was  symptomatic 
of  the  awakening  doubt  of  the  people  concerning 
their  rights  under  present  arrangements.  Watertown, 
on  advice  of  its  ministers,  publicly  given,  "  that  it  was 
not  safe  to  pay  moneys  after  that  sort  for  fear  of 
bringing  themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage,"  de- 
clined to  furnish  its  quota  of  a  general  tax  assessed  in 
February  (1631)  by  the  magistrates  to  meet  the  cost 
of  a  u  pally sadoe  "  at  Newtown.  The  Court  had  there- 
upon called  Watertown  to  serious  account,  and  had 
obtained  its  submission.  "  The  ground  of  their 
error  was,"  says  Winthrop,  "  for  that  they  took  this 
government  to  be  no  other  but  as  of  a  mayor  and 
alderman,  who  have  not  power  to  make  laws  or  raise 
taxations  without  the  people,  but  understanding  that 
this  government  was  rather  in  the  nature  of  a  parlia- 
ment .  .  .  they  were  fully  satisfied." 


106  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

They  did  not  stay  satisfied,  though,  very  long. 
The  same  questioning,  as  we  judge  from  subsequent 
disclosures,  was  audible  in  other  quarters.  There 
was  wisdom  enough  in  the  administration  to  recog- 
nize the  state  of  things,  and  to  discern  that  the  counsel 
of  Roger  Ludlow's  passion  was  not  to  be  taken  in 
meeting  it.  At  the  Court  of  Elections  in  May, 
1632,  the  first  thing  done  was  to  rescind  the  rule 
by  which  the  Assistants  alone  had  power  to  choose 
the  executive,  and  to  adopt  another,  giving  the  free- 
men a  direct  voice  in  that  election.  The  rule,  too, 
that  the  Assistants  once  chosen  should  hold  their 
places  till  removed  for  cause,  was  dropped ;  but 
more  significantly  still,  it  further  ordered  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  of  two  or  three  from  each 
plantation  (of  which  there  were  now  eight)  "  to  con- 
fer with  the  Court  about  raising  of  a  public  stock,  so 
as  what  they  should  agree  upon  should  bind  all,"  — 
which  committee  was  the  egg  of  a  house  of  repre- 
sentatives in  due  time.  These  were  important  steps 
toward  possessing  the  commons  of  their  chartered 
privilege,  the  extent  of  which  neither  they  nor  the 
leaders  thus  far  apprehended.  But  paternalism  was 
very  slightly  hurt  as  yet.  The  Journal  acquaints 
us  with  the  circumstance  that  at  this  same  court  "  a 
proposition  was  made  by  the  people  that  every  com- 
pany of  trained  men  might  choose  their  own  captain 
and  officers,  but  the  governor  giving  them  reasons  to 
the  contrary  they  were  satisfied  without  it." 

The  election,  on  the  reformed  basis,  continued  the 
entire    government   in   office,   as    has    been   before 


THE   GOVERNOR  DECLINES  GIFTS.        107 

noted,1  and  added  three  new  members  to  the  Board  of 
Assistants,  —  one  of  them,  John  Winthrop,  Jr. 

That,  notwithstanding  something  in  the  nature  of 
a  political  opposition  had  developed,  there  was  and 
had  been  a  state  of  prevalent  good  feeling  in  the 
colony,  is  shown  by  the  tenor  of  a  speech  Winthrop 
made  in  Court,  after  taking  his  oath  as  governor  this 
third  time,  which  merits  insertion,  both  for  the  in- 
formation it  conveys  and  for  the  quality  of  the 
speaker  reflected  in  it.  He  had,  he  said,  "  received 
gratuities  from  divers  towns,  which  he  received  with 
much  comfort  and  content;  he  had  also  received 
many  kindnesses  from  particular  persons,  which  he 
would  not  refuse,  lest  he  should  be  accounted  un- 
courteous,  etc. ;  but  he  professed,  that  he  received 
them  with  a  trembling  heart,  in  regard  of  God's  rule, 
and  the  consciousness  of  his  own  infirmity;  and 
therefore  desired  them,  that  hereafter  they  would 
not  take  it  ill,  if  he  did  refuse  presents  from  par- 
ticular persons,  except  they  were  from  the  assistants, 
or  from  some  special  friends ;  to  which  no  answer 
was  made ;  but  he  was  told  after,  that  many  good 
people  were  much  grieved  at  it,  for  that  he  never 
had  any  allowance  towards  the  charge  of  his  place." 
It  may  be  remarked  here,  that  it  was  not  till  the  year 
following,  when  Winthrop  was  the  fourth  time  elected 
governor,  that  any  appropriation  out  of  the  public  funds 
was  made  for  the  salary  of  the  chief  magistrate,  and 
then  it  was  ^150.  This  year,  however,  he  received 
from  the  Court  the  grant,  or  a  perpetual  lease  at  a 

1  Page  97. 


108  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

nominal  rent,  of  Conant's  Island  in  the  harbour, 
called  thereafter  "  The  Governor's  Garden,"  which 
continued  in  possession  of  his  family  till  purchased  by 
the  United  States  for  the  site  of  Fort  Winthrop. 

To  judge  that  Massachusetts  in  those  earliest 
days  or  at  any  time  in  that  generation  was,  except  for 
brief  periods,  preoccupied  with  politics,  would  be 
an  error.  The  conscious  life  of  the  community 
was  above  all  religious,  and  centred,  not  about  the 
General  Court,  but  about  the  meeting-houses.  In 
1633  the  Court  found  it  even  necessary  to  re- 
strain by  regulation  an  excessive  employment  of 
time  in  week-day  religious  services.  Compared  with 
spiritual  concernments,  those  of  civil  government 
were,  to  aristocrats  and  democrats  alike,  second- 
ary. The  State  was  incident  to  the  Church,  and 
its  servant.  The  bond  that  incorporated  and  held  the 
colonists  together  as  a  society  was  the  fellowship  of 
the  sanctuary.  One  mark  of  the  supremacy  with 
them  of  the  ecclesiastical  view  of  the  structure  they 
were  rearing  in  the  wilderness,  was  their  reading  of 
those  unusual  phenomena  of  Nature,  which,  after  the 
manner  of  their  time,  they  scanned  as  portents. 
Thus,  for  instance,  in  this  summer  of  1632,  the 
governor   records : — 

"  At  Watertown  there  was  (in  the  view  of  divers  wit- 
nesses) a  great  combat  between  a  mouse  and  a  snake  ; 
and,  after  a  long  fight,  the  mouse  prevailed  and  killed  the 
snake.  The  pastor  of  Boston,  Mr.  Wilson,  a  very  sincere, 
holy  man,  hearing  of  it.  gave  this  interpretation  :  That  the 
snake  was  the  devil  ;  the  mouse  was  a  poor  contemptible 


THE   GOVERNOR    VISITS   THE  PILGRIMS.     109 


>♦ 


people,  which  God  had  brought  hither,  which  should  over- 
come Satan  here,  and  dispossess  him  of  his  kingdom. 
Upon  the  same  occasion,  he  told  the  governour,  that,  be- 
fore he  was  resolved  to  come  into  this  country,  he  dreamed 
he  was  here,  and  that  he  saw  a  church  arise  out  of  the 
earth,  which  grew  up  and  became  a  marvellous  goodly 
Church." 

Nor  in  their  isolation  and  pinch  of  adversity,  was 
their  care  for  the  interest  of  religion  restricted  to 
their  own  Zion.  Twice,  during  1632,  successes  of  the 
Protestant  cause  in  Germany,  of  which  new-comers 
brought  word,  were  included  in  the  subjects  of  their 
public  thanksgiving ;  and  all  through  their  struggling 
period  they  are  seen  continually  responding  with 
thanksgiving  or  with  fast,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  the 
shifting  phases  of  the  great  battle  for  a  purer  faith 
going  on  in  the  Old  World. 

Late  in  the  fall  of  1632  the  Massachusetts  gov- 
ernor returned  his  brother  of  Plymouth's  compli- 
ment of  the  previous  year  by  paying  him  a  week's 
visit,  on  which  occasion  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  had 
a  good  time  together.  The  brave  ship  Lyon,  sail- 
ing for  England,  —  her  last  voyage  ;  she  laid  her  hon- 
ourable bones  on  a  Virginia  shoal  not  long  after,  — 
brought  Winthrop  and  his  party,  including  Elder 
Wilson,  on  their  way  as  far  as  Wessaguscus  (Wey- 
mouth), whence  they  continued  their  journey,  twenty- 
five  miles  farther  by  an  Indian*  trail,  on  foot.  "The 
governor  of  Plymouth,  Mr.  William  Bradford  (a 
very  discreet   and   grave   man),  with  Mr.    Brewster 


no  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

the  elder  and  some  others,  came  forth  and  met 
them  without  the  town,  and  conducted  them  to 
the  governor's  house,  where  they  were  kindly  enter- 
tained, and  feasted  every  day  at  several  houses." 

The  Journal's  account  of  the  Sunday  that  came  into 
the  visit  is  especially  quaint  and  pleasing.  In  the 
forenoon  "  there  was  a  sacrament,  which  they  did 
partake  in;"  in  the  afternoon  a  sermon,  and  "ac- 
cording to  their  custom,"  a  question  propounded 
for  discussion,  to  which  "  the  governor  of  Plymouth 
spake;  .  .  .  after  him,  the  elder;  then  some  two 
or  three  more  of  the  congregation.  Then  the  elder 
desired  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  Mr.  Wil- 
son to  speak  to  it,  which  they  did.  When  this  was 
ended,  the  deacon,  Mr.  Fuller,  put  the  congregation 
in  mind  of  their  duty  of  contribution  ;  whereupon  the 
governor  and  all  the  rest  went  down  to  the  deacon's 
seat,  and  put  into  the  box  and  then  returned." 

During  the  visit  —  though  probably  not  on  Sun- 
day —  a  point  of  casuistry,  warmly  in  dispute  in 
Plymouth  at  that  time,  namely,  whether,  since  it  was 
*  sinful  to  call  any  man  good,"  the  title  "  good- 
man,"  as  commonly  used,  were  permissible,  was  sub- 
mitted to  Winthrop  for  an  opinion.  His  answer  — 
which  composed  the  strife  —  was,  that  it  was  a  mere 
conventionality,  as  in  the  case  of  the  court-crier's 
"Good  men  and  true,"  understood  by  no  one  to 
refer  to  moral  quality ;  an  ancient  .  custom,  which 
it  would  be  a  pity  to  disturb. 

When  the  visitors  could  stay  no  longer,  though 
the    start    homeward   was   made   before   sunrise,  the 


THE   GOVERNOR  VISITS   THE  PILGRIMS,      m 

Plymouth  governor  with  the  principal  men  of  the 
colony  attended  them  "  near  half  a  mile  out  of  town 
in  the  dark,"  and  some  others  of  less  dignity  a  dis- 
tance of  ten  miles  with  the  "  governor's  mare  "  for  his 
distinguished  guest  to  ride.  Over  the  North  River, 
which  crossed  their  route,  they  were  carried  pick- 
back  "  by  one  Luddam,  their  guide,  (as  they  had 
been  when  they  came,  the  stream  being  very  strong, 
and  up  to  the  crotch;)  so  the  governour  called 
that  passage  Luddam's  Ford.  Thence  they  came  to 
a  place  called  Hue's  Cross.  The  governour,  being 
displeased  at  the  name,  in  respect .  that  such  things 
might  hereafter  give  the  Papists  occasion  to  say, 
that  their  religion  was  first  planted  in  these  parts, 
changed  the  name,  and  called  it  Hue's  Folly.  So 
they  came,  that  evening,  to  Wessaguscus  .  .  .  and  the 
next  day  came  safe  to  Boston." 

The  governor  was  a  trifle  over- scrupulous  about 
Hue's  Cross,  as  well  as  less  broad-minded  than  he 
had  been  on  the  "goodman"  question,  since  it 
really  meant  Hue's  Crossing;  somewhat  over-free, 
too,  for  it  was  not  in  his  jurisdiction. 


H2  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

BOILING   OF  THE   POLITICAL   CALDRON. 
(1633-1635.) 

Though  the  increase  of  the  colony  by  emigration 
the  first  three  years  was  inconsiderable  in  numbers, 
it  included  several  persons  of  eminence  in  the  annals 
of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  England.  Among  them, 
besides  John  Eliot  and  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  already 
named,  were  Roger  Williams  and  John  Humphrey; 
the  latter  son-in-law  (like  Isaac  Johnson)  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  signer  of  the  Cambridge  Agree- 
ment, former  deputy-governor  of  the  Company  in 
England,  who  was  made  Assistant  immediately  upon 
his  coming.  But  by  far  the  most  important  arrival 
was  a  company  or  congregation  of  two  hundred,  led 
by  its  pastors,  Thomas  Hooker  and  Samuel  Stone, 
and  by  John  Haynes,  —  men  of  high  merit,  all  three, 

—  that  landed  in  September,  1633,  ana"  settled  in 
Newtown.      In  the  same  ship  came  also  John  Cotton, 

—  he  who  preached  the  farewell  at  Southampton,  — 
henceforward  prominently  identified  with  the  colony 
as  long  as  he  lived.  He  had  held  a  distinguished 
position  at  home  as  rector  for  twenty  years  of  St. 
Botolph's  parish,  Lincolnshire ;  its  church  one  of  the 
noblest  ecclesiastical  structures  in  England ;  the  same 


JOHN  COTTON.  1 13 

whose  bells  "rung  out  the  Brides  of  Enderby"  in 
the  High  Tide  of  15  71  ;  the  lantern  in  whose  tower, 
long  a  beacon  to  mariners  on  the  North  Sea,  was  said 
to  have  gone  out  when  Cotton  went  away.  He  now 
crossed  the  Atlantic  "  to  preach  the  gospel,"  says 
Palfrey,  "  within  the  mud  walls  and  under  the  thatched 
roof  of  the  meeting-house  in  a  rude  New  England 
hamlet ;  "  for  he  was  soon  installed  Mr.  Wilson's  col- 
league in  the  ministry  of  the  church  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Boston. 

These  four  gentlemen,  —  Hooker,  Stone,  Haynes, 
Cotton,  —  though  one  vessel  brought  them  to  the 
Bay,  and  though  the  warmest  friends,  were  not  of 
the  same  political  stamp.  The  first  three  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  popular  idea  of  government ;  Cotton, 
on  the  contrary,  was  of  the  aristocratic  creed.  In  a 
letter  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  not  long  after  he  landed, 
he  wrote  :  "  Democracy  I  do  not  conceive  that  God 
ever  did  ordain  as  a  fit  government  either  for  church 
or  commonwealth.  If  the  people  be  governors,  who 
shall  be  the  governed."  Yet  his  aristocracy,  it  is  due 
to  say,  was  of  a  qualified  sort.  The  occasion  of  the 
letter  just  referred  to,  was  a  proposal  privately  sub- 
mitted to  the  colony  leaders  by  several  Puritan  peers 
to  cast  in  their  lot  with  Massachusetts,  provided  that 
for  their  rank  they  received  a  certain  indicated  place 
in  the  government,  —  the  same  to  be  hereditary.  An 
impossible  proposal  it  was  at  once  seen,  and  the  deli- 
cate duty  of  declining  it  assigned  to  Cotton,  who,  in 
a  suitable  circumspect  manner  but  unequivocally,  so 
did ;  saying  that  while,  without  doubt,  the  noble  per- 

8 


H4  JOHN  WINTHROP, 

sonages  themselves,  should  they  —  to  our  universal 
congratulation  in  so  rich  a  blessing  — join  our  humble 
colony,  would  be  honoured  "in  our  public  elections" 
as  became  their  illustrious  merit ;  yet,  "  if  God  should 
not  delight  to  furnish  some  of  their  posterity  with 
gifts  fit  for  magistracy,  we  should  expose  them  rather 
to  reproach  and  prejudice,  and  the  commonwealth 
with  them,  than  exalt  them  to  honour,  if  we  should 
call  them  forth,  when  God  doth  not,  to  public 
.  authority." 

Both  parties  to  the  difference  existing  in  the  colony 
being  thus  reinforced,  there  was  a  renewal  of  its  agi- 
tation. Hooker  and  his  associates,  indeed,  were  not 
forward  to  go  into  it,  —  partly  out  of  their  great  re- 
spect for  Winthrop ;  and  partly  for  another  reason, 
hereafter  to  transpire.  Their  attitude,  however, 
was  well  known,  and  had  its  influence.  M' After  his 
[Hooker's]  coming,"  says  historian  Hubbard,  "  it 
was  observed  that  many  of  th(L  freemen  grew  to  be 
very  jealous  of  their  liberties.' J  But  Cotton  plunged 
in  at  once  with  all  the  ardour  of  his  nature.  He  seems 
to  have  begun  with  persuading  the  authorities  that  it 
was  their  prudence  and  their  duty  to  recover  some 
part  of  the  power  which  they  had  relinquished.  [At 
any  rate,  in  a  sermon  preached  at  the  first  Court  of 
Elections  after  his  arrival  (May,  1634),  he  advanced 
and  defended  the  theory,  lately  abandoned  in  prac- 
tice, "  that  a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  turned  into 
the  condition  of  a  private  man  without  just  cause." 
He  had  never  before  spoken  in  ears  so  deaf  to  his 
teaching. 


FREEMEN  ASK   TO  SEE   CHARTER.       115 

A  short  time  before  the  meeting  of  this  Court,  a 
memorable  thing  had  happened.  [^Sixteen  men  —  two 
from  each  of  the  towns  —  had  gone  together  to  Bos- 
ton, and  asked  for  a  sight  of  the  charter.  Upon 
perusing  which./( scene  for  a  painter;  those  grave, 
strong- featured,  shrewd,  English-yeoman  faces,  bent 
over  the  parchment;  in  the  speech  the  while  going 
on,  the  eastern  counties'  accent  mingling  with  that 
of  Devon  and  Dorset),  ^conceiving  thereby,"  says 
Winthrop,  ["  that  all  their  laws  should  be  made  ate 
the  generaicourt,  repaired  to  the  governor"  —  him- 
self, of  course  —  "  to  advise  with  him  about  it  1!j 
(another  scene  for  a  painter).  To  whom  he  serenely 
expounds  that  while  it  is  true  the  charter  does 
read  as  they  say,uhey  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  the 
number  of  freemen  is  now  much  larger  than  was 
anticipated,  and  that  for  the  present  they  are  not 
qualified  to  direct  the  course  of  the  government. 
Since  they  are  solicitous,  however,  they  may,  if  they 
will,  when  the  Court  meets,  choose  a  committee  to 
scrutinize  the  acts  of  the  administration,  and  to  move 
for  their  amendment  if  tfrey  are  wrong,  "  but  not 
to  make  any  new  laws.")  guch  a  committee,  he 
presumes,  —  indeed,  he  can  promise,  —  would  be 
consulted  on  the  subjects  of  the  taxes  and  of  the 
disposal  of  lands,  —  matters  they  appear  particularly 
concerned  about^j 

The  delegation  take  their  leave,  but  have  their 
own  thoughts  on  the  governor's  exposition,  and 
trudge  or  paddle  back  home  to  talk.  They  are 
pretty  certainly  among  the  members  of  the  General 


y 


n6  JOHN   W1NTHR0P 

Court  who  a  month  later  sit  before  Mr.  Cotton 
delivering  his  dictum  that  the  tenure  of  the  magiste- 
rial office  is  properly  permanent,  and  have  not  an 
ear  to  hear  him.  And  there  are  many  besides  on 
hand  there  like  them,  —  a  majority,  in  fact.  For, 
the  discourse  ended  and  the  election  being  in  order, 
upon  canvass  of  the  vote  for  chief  executive  (it  is 
"by  papers,"  the  first  political  use  of  the  ballot 
on  record),  lo,  Governor  Winthrop  is  retired,  and 
Thomas  Dudley  is  promoted  to  his  place. 
(  But  the  commons  having  thus  in  his  revered  person 
rebuked  the  permanent  tenure  doctrine,  choose  him 
Assistant,  so  that  he  is  not  out  of  the  government) 
And  —  it  is  pertinent  here  to  note  —  at  the  three 
elections  following,  the  same  thing  would  be  re- 
peated; namely,  a  new  man  would  each  time  be 
made  governor :  a  circumstance  which  seems  not  to 
have  received  due  attention  from  those  who  allege 
that  in  the  early  day  the  ministers  —  for  the  body 
of  whom  there  is  every  reason  to  judge  Mr.  Cotton 
spoke  —  carried  Massachusetts  in  their  pocket. 

The  freemen  now  had  their  inning,  and  proceeded 
to  increase  their  score.  LXhey  restored  the  four 
annual  General  Courts  provided  in  the  charter ; 
repealed  orders  of  previous  Courts ;  fined  the  Court 
of  Assistants  for  exceeding  their  authority  in  a  cer- 
tain case  (but  the  fine  was  remitted  before  adjourn- 
ment) ;  enlarged  the  liberty  of  the  towns ;  forbade 
Assistants,  on  pain  of  a  fine,  to  absent  themselves 
from  Court  without  leave  (apparently  lest  in  pique 
some  of  them  should  retire  to  their  tents)  j  required 


WINTHROP  RENDERS  HIS  ACCOUNT.     117 

the  late  governor  to  render  account  of  his  adminis- 
tration of  the  public  funds  and  other  property ;  and, 
most  important  of  all,  ordained,  as  a  fixed  feature  of 
the  government,  a  regular  representation  of  the  towns 
in  the  General  Court  by  deputies  clothed  with  all 
powers,  "  making  and  establishing  lawes,  granting  of 
lands,  etc.,"  belonging  to  the  commons  by  the  charter ; 
— "  the  matter  of  election  of  magistrates  and  other 
officers  only  excepted,  wherein  every  freeman  is  to 
give  his  own  voice," [J*  Many  good  orders  were  made  > 
by  this  Court,"  says  Winthrop, —  an  observation  some- 
what comical  under  the  circumstances. 

But  Winthrop,  though  his  soul  was  tried  by  the 
turn  of  affairs,  was  no  man  to  sulk.  None  knew 
better  than  he  how  to  bend  to  a  storm.  He  dis- 
misses his  brief  resume  of  the  doings  of  the  Court 
with  the  note  that  "  the  new  governor  and  the  assist- 
tants  were  together  entertained  [the  italics  are  his 
own]  at  the  house  of  the  old  governor  as  before." 

The  call  for  his  account,  inasmuch  as  it  was  cap- 
tiously meant,  was  naturally  felt  by  him  as  some- 
thing of  an  unkind  cut;  but  he  made  ng>  cavil  or 
delay  about  it.  It  was  punctually  ready  against  the 
next  meeting  of  the  General  Court  (September,  1634), 
and  was  marked  by  minuteness  of  detail  and  by  great 
dignity.  In  the  course  of  it  he  takes  occasion  to 
say,— 

"  I  was  first  chosen  to  be  governor  without  my  seeking 
or  expectation  (there  being  then  divers  other  gent,  who 
for  their  abilities  every  way  were  far  more  fit).  Being 
chosen  I  furnished  myself  with  servants  and  provisions 


n8  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

accordingly,  in  a  far  greater  proportion  than  I  would 
have  done,  had  I  come  as  a  private  man,  or  as  an  assist- 
ant only.  In  this  office  I  continued  four  years  and  near 
an  half,  although  I  earnestly  desired,  at  every  election,  to 
have  been  freed. " 

He  then  reluctantly  states  —  what  he  would  have 
been  satisfied  to  keep  to  himself  had  he  been  per- 
mitted —  that  in  those  four  and  a  half  years  he  has 
paid  out  for  the  colony,  over  and  above  all  he  has 
received,  not  less  than  ^1,200  of  his  own  money. 
And  he  thus  finishes  :  — 

"In  all  these  things  I  refer  myself  to  the  wisdom  and 
justice  of  the  court,  with  this  protestation,  that  it  repent- 
eth  me  not  of  my  cost  or  labour  bestowed  in  the  ser- 
vice of  this  commonwealth  ;  but  do  heartily  bless  the 
Lord  our  Godr  that  he  hath  pleased  to  honour  me  so  far 
as  to  call  for  any  thing  he  hath  bestowed  upon  me  for  the 
service  of  his  church  and  people  here,  the  prosperity 
whereof,  and  his  gracious  acceptance,  shall  be  an  abun- 
dant recompense  to  me.  I  conclude  with  this  one  re- 
quest, Cwhich  in  justice  may  not  be  denied  me,)  that,  as  it 
stands  upon  record,  that,  upon  the  discharge  of  my  office, 
I  was  calkd  to  accompt,  so  this  my  declaration  may  be 
recorded  also ;  lest  hereafter,  when  I  shall  be  forgotten, 
some  blemish  may  lie  upon  my  posterity  when  there 
shall  be  nothing  to  clear  it." 

His  request  was  complied  with,  and  the  Massachu- 
setts State  records  forever  graced  with  this  patriotic 
and  self-respecting  deliverance. 

The  late,r  royal  governor  and  historian  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Hutchinson,  observes  upon  this  incident 
that  Winthrop  "might  have  torn  his  books  of  ac- 


DANGER  FROM  ABROAD.  119 

counts,  as  Scipio  Africanus  did,  and  given  the  un- 
grateful populace  this  answer :  A  Colony,  now  in  a 
flourishing  estate,  has  been  led  out  and  settled  under 
my  direction.  My  own  substance  is  consumed.  Spend 
no  more  time  in  harangues,  but  give  thanks  to  God." 

But  of  such  resentment  Winthrop  was  quite  in- 
capable. He  accepted  his  inferior  station  with  entire 
meekness,  and  abated  the  heartiness  of  his  public 
spirit  and  of  his  public  service  not  a  jot ;  nor,  for  all 
he  was  not  chief  magistrate,  did  he  cease  to  be  chief 
man  of  the  colony. 

New  and  pressing  need  of  the  kind  of  service  he 
was  peculiarly  fitted  to  render  soon  arose.  Whatever 
jealousy  was  the  cause  or  the  consequence  of  the 
overturn  that  unseated  him  from  the  place  of  prin- 
cipal authority,  was  abruptly  disarmed  by  the  sudden 
revelationlin  the  following  August  (1634)  of  a  danger 
from  abroad  the  fear  of  which  all  shared  alike,  for 
it  jeopardized  what  was  to  all  alike  politically  a  su- 
preme interest,  —  the  colony's  prerogative  of  self- 
government.J 

One  peril  of  the  sort  had  already  been  encountered 
and  safely  weathered.  \_Late  in  1632  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges  and  John  Mason  had  induced  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil to  attend  to  a  claim  which  on  the  basis  of  an  earlier 
grant  (that  which  William  Blackstone  is  supposed  to 
have  represented)  they  laid  to  a  portion  of  the  Bay 
territory^  This  proceeding  had  been  zealously  abetted 
by  the  Brownes  lately  of  Salem,  by  Thomas  Morton 
the  scamp  of  Merrymount,  and  by  other  individuals 
expelled  from  New  England ;  who  had  been  indus- 


120  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

trious  in  giving  currency  to  the  worst  possible  ac- 
counts of  the  condition  of  things  there.  But  when 
it  came  to  the  hearing,  friends  like  ex-Governor 
Cradock  and  John  Humphrey  and  Emanuel  Down- 
ing and  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  (fortunately  in  Eng- 
land on  business)  were  on  hand  to  put  a  different  face 
on  the  colony  and  its  doings.  Strange  to  say,  a  wit- 
ness in  its  favour  came  forward  in  the  person  of  a 
gentleman  —  Thomas  Wiggin  his  name  —  who  had 
been  superintendent  of  a  plantation  at  Piscataqua 
(Portsmouth),  of  which  Gorges  and  Mason  were  pro- 
prietors. With  indignation  at  the  "  false  informa- 
tions "  lodged  with  the  Council,  he  earnestly,  "  out  of 
respect  to  the  general  good,  being  none  of  their  plan- 
tation, but  a  neighbour  by,"  affirmed  the  praise- 
worthy character,  to  his  knowledge,  of  the  defamed 
community,  both  leaders  and  people.  Of  Winthrop 
he  testified  :  "  I  have  observed  him  to  be  a  discreete 
and  sober  man,  giving  good  example  to  all  the  planters, 
wearinge  plaine  apparell,  such  as  may  well  beseeme  a 
meane  man,  drinking  ordinarily  water,  and  when  he 
is  not  conversant  about  matters  of  justice,  putting  his 
hand  to  any  ordinarye  labour  with  his  servants,  ruling 
with  much  mildness,  and  in  this  particular  I  observed 
him  to  be  strict  in  execution  of  Justice  upon  such  as 
have  scandalized  this  state,  either  in  civill  or  ecclesi- 
asticall  government,  to  the  great  content1*1'  of  those 
that  are  best  affected,  and  to  the  terror  of  offendors." 
The  result  of  this  attempt  had  been  that  the  de- 
fendant came  off  with  decidedly  flying  colours.  But 
that  of  which  the  colony  now  had  intelligence  was 


WILLIAM  LAUD.  12 1 

much  more  alarming.  Back  of  it  was  William  Laud, 
under  whose  inspiration  since  his  elevation  to  the 
archbishopric  (August,  1633)  the  hostility  of  the 
royal  government  to  all  Puritan  works  and  ways  had 
grown  steadily  more  pronounced,  and  who  was  eying 
New  England,  where  everything  most  odious  to  him 
was  rife,  with  profound  displeasure.  Of  Laud,  as- 
signed by  fate  the  role  of  evil  genius  in  this  history,  it 
is  just  to  say,  not  only  that  he  rose  by  force  of  great 
abilities,  but  that,  while  narrow  even  to  a  signal  de- 
gree in  an  age  of  narrowness,  and  a  burning  enthusi- 
ast in  his  antipathies,  he  was  not  a  bad  man.  He 
was  by  no  means  lacking  in  personal  piety ;  his  diary 
shows  him  capable  of  celestial  dreams  as  well  as  Win- 
throp  :  and  beyond  question  his  public  course  was 
conformed  to  his  sincere  convictions.  Certainly  he 
was  a  spirit  of  boundless  courage ;  and  in  his  en- 
counter with  the  spirit  that  opposed  him  it  was 
diamond  cut  diamond.  His  particular  attention  was 
drawn  to  Massachusetts  by  the  departure  of  Hooker's 
company,  which  he  in  vain  sought  to  obstruct.  I  To 
strengthen  his  hand  for  such  work  he  then  shortly 
procured  (April,  1634)  the  transfer  of  the  control  of 
English  colonial  affairs  from  the  Privy  Council  to  a 
special  Commission  —  consisting  of  himself,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  six  lay  peers,  and  three  high  officers 
of  court  —  invested  with  all  comprehensive  authority 
in  its  province,  extending  to  the  recall  at  discretion 
of  letters  patent.  Very  little  delay  did  it  make  in 
proceeding  to  business,  for  before  summer  was  over 
there   was   received    at  the  Bay    from   ex-Governor 


122  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

Cradock  a  copy  of  an  order  of  the  Commission 
just  passed,  requiring  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  to 
be  sent  to  England/)  Near  the  same  time  there  was 
given  into  Winthrop's  hands  a  private  letter  of  Merry- 
mount  Morton's,  which  was,  from  beginning  to  end, 
an  abusive  exultant  crow  over  the  same  fact,  and 
boasted  that  a  royal  governor  was  presently  coming 
to  whip  your  plaguy  colony  into  order. 

Here  was  trouble  enough.  What  to  do  was  the 
question.  What  had  we  best  tell  Mr.  Cradock  to  say? 
—  or  shall  we  hold  our  peace  ?  After  long  consultation 
we  finally  agree  to  send  him  word  —  which  he  will 
make  such  use  of  as  he  sees  fit  —  that  no  action  can 
be  had  on  the  subject  of  his  communication  before 
the  next  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  which  will  not 
be  till  September.  Then,  in  a  day  or  two,  we  all  pull 
out  to  Castle  Island  on  a  military  engineering  trip ; 
to  the  result  that  we  conclude  to  erect  a  fortifica- 
tion there  and  mount  some  guns,  the  work  to  begin 
forthwith,  under  superintendence  of  Deputy-Governor 
Roger  Ludlow,  who  for  present  outlay  may  draw  on 
each  of  us  for  five  pounds,  —  but  the  General  Court 
will  probably  finish  it7\ 

The  General  Court  limply  justified  this  confidence. 
When  it  met  (September  3)  the  official  copy  of  the 
new  Commission's  "Hemand  had  come.  But  Cradock's 
warning  had  given  the  Commons  time  to  think  and  to 
confer,  and  they  were  ready  to  act.  The  conscious- 
ness of  their  larger  part  and  responsibility  in  the  gov- 
ernment was  now  a  circumstance  in  the  highest 
degree  favourable  to  the  public  interest.     Their  spirit 


THE   COLONY  DEFIANT.  123 

was  up.  "j!he  Court  endorsed  at  once  the  initiative  of 
defence  the  administration  had  taken,  and  adopted 
further  measures  in  the  same  direction;  voting  not 
only  to  go  on  with  the  fortification  of  Castle  Island, 
but  to  strengthen  that  of  Boston,  and  to  fortify  the 
approaches  to  the  harbour,  at  Dorchester  and  at 
Charlestown,  as  well.  It  also  ordered  the  full  arming 
and  more  systematic  training  of  the  militia,  and  raised 
a  committee  of  five,  in  which  Winthrop  was  named 
next  after  the  governor,  to  conduct  "  any  warr  that 
may  befall  us."  To  meet  the  expense  of  these  prep- 
arations it  levied  a  tax  of  six  hundred  pounds. 
During  the  winter  (January,  1635)  the  magistrates 
called  the  fourteen  or  fifteen  ministers  together  at 
Boston,  and  asked  their  advice  (who  better  to  ask? 
men  of  education,  every  one  university-bred,  men  of 
sense  and  of  highest  public  spirit,  but  by  their  calling 
incapable  of  civil  office,)  on  the  question,  "What  we 
ought  to  do  if  a  general  governor  should  be  sent  out 
of  England?  "  To  which  the  unanimous  answer  was 
that  "  we  ought  not  to  accept  him,  but  defend  our 
lawful  possessions,  if  we  were  able ;  otherwise  to  avoid 
or  protract."''; 

L_That  phrase  "  avoid  or  protract  "  let  the  reader 
mark.  It  perfectly  expresses  the  policy  Massachusetts 
steadfastly  and  successfully  pursued  on  like  occasions, 
as  they  arose  at  intervals,  for  fifty  years  to  come} 

(The  next  General  Court  (March,  1635)  appropri- 
ated five  hundred  pounds  more  to  the  fortifications  ; 
increased  the  military  committee  to  eleven,  and  gave 
it  power  to  imprison  or   even   put  to  death  public 


124  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

enemies;  imposed  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Massa- 
chusetts on  all  male  citizens  above  the  age  of  six- 
teen; caused  the  beacon,  whence  Beacon  Hill  is 
named,  to  be  set  up  "to  give  notice  to  the  country 
of  any  danger ;  "  ordered  the  towns  to  provide  suit- 
able storage  for  the  powder  and  ammunition  distrib 
uted  to  them ;  and,  to  ensure  a  stock  of  musket-balls, 
made  them  legal  tender  to  a  certain  amount  at  a  far- 
thing each.  And  that  was  the  only  reply  the  colony 
made  to  the  demand  from  England. 

It  provokes  a  smile  to  see  the  little  commonwealth 
(of  less  than  five  thousand  souls  at  the  time)  doub- 
ling up  its  infant  fist  in  this  manner ;  but  there  was 
infinite  pluck  in  it,  —  the  budding  of  what  came  to 
flower  a  century  and  a  half  later.  It  was  far  from  a 
childish  defiance,  though  ;  simply  the  assertion  of  the 
instinctive  law  of  self-preservation.  Q?he  stake  was 
nothing  less  than  existence.  The  rights  guaranteed 
by  the  charter  were  vital,  —  covering  not  alone  the 
institutions  of  society,  but  the  private  title  to  lands 
and  houses.  The  loss  of  the  charter,  says  John 
Fiske,  meant  that  "  every  rood  of  the  soil  of  Massa- 
chusetts became  the  personal  property  of  the  Stuart 
king,  who  might  .  .  .  turn  out  all  the  present  occu- 
pants, or  otherwise  deal  with  them  as  trespassers." 
There  were  no  chances,  however  desperate,  that  in 
such  an  emergency  it  was  not  a  necessity  to  take. 
_HioiigliJ&im,rxTO^  in  office,  it  is  plain 

to  see  that  no  other  individual  exercised  such  an 
'influence  both  with:  the  government  and  with  the 
people,  in  determining  what  should  be  done  at  this 


THE  INDIAN  STORY.  125 

time,   as   did  he.      He   was   the   statesman   of  the 
commonwealth. 

It  is  a  token,  by  inference,  of  his  equal  mind  in 
circumstances  so  critical,  that,  in  the  interval  between 
the  arrival  of  Cradock's  letter  and  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Court  in  September,  occurs  the  only  out- 
and-out  humorous  entry  the  Journal  contains,  —  an 
Indian  story  from  Plymouth,  which  had  evidently 
provoked  much  laughter  at  the  Bay,  —  as  follows : 

"  One  pleasant  passage  happened  which  was  acted  by 
the  Indians.  Mr.  Winslow  coming  iti  his  bark  from  Con- 
necticut to  Narigansett, — and  he  left  her  there,  —  and 
intending  to  return  by  land  he  went  to  Osamekin  the  sag- 
amore his  old  ally,  who  offered  to  conduct  him  home  to 
Plimouth.  But  before  they  took  their  journey,  Osamekin 
sent  one  of  his  men  to  Plimouth  to  tell  them  that  Mr. 
Winslow  was  dead;  and  directed  him  to  show  how  and 
where  he  was  killed.  Whereupon  there  was  much  fear 
and  sorrow  at  Plimouth.  The  next  day  when  Osamekin 
brought  him  home,  they  asked  him  why  he  sent  such 
word,  etc.  He  answered  that  it  was  their  manner  to  do 
so,  that  they  might  be  the  more  welcome  when  they  came 
home." 

If  Winthrop  was  the  foremost  man  of  the  colony, 
he  was  jalso  the  fir^jdtjzejri^pX^pj|pn?  ,_.The  earliest 
records  of  the  town  that  are  preserved  begin  in  1634, 
and  are  in  his  handwriting.  The  Journal  tells  of  a 
matter  occurring  late  in  that  year  which  incidentally 
discloses  the  estimation  in  which  he  stood  among  his 
fellow-townsmen,  and  is  of  interest  otherwise. 

A  town-meeting  being  held  to  elect  a  committee  of 
seven  to  allot  the  town  lands,  of  the  candidates  bal- 


126  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

loted  for,  —  there  were,  it  seems,  a  good  many  of 
them,  —  Winthrop  was  the  only  magistrate  chosen ; 
the  rest,  all  but  one  or  two,  "  of  the  inferior  sort." 

"This  they  did  as  fearing  that  the  richer  men 
would  give  the  poorer  sort  no  great  proportions  of 
the  land,  but  would  rather  leave  a  great  part  at  liberty 
for  new  comers  and  for  common,  which  Mr.  Win- 
throp had  oft  persuaded  them  unto  as  best  for  the 
town,  etc." 

In  view  of  this  result  and  its  cause,  Winthrop  de- 
clined to  serve,  giving  as  his  reason,  that  though 
"  for  his  part  he  did  not  apprehend  any  personal  in- 
jury, nor  did  doubt  of  their  good  affection  toward 
him,  yet  he  was  much  grieved  that  Boston  should  be 
the  first  who  should  shake  off  their  magistrates." 
And  he  named  in  particular  Assistant  Coddington, 
whom  they  had  rejected,  as  a  man  deserving  better 
of  them;  "adding  further  reason  of  declining  this 
choice,  to  blot  out  so  bad  a  precedent." 

Whereupon,  after  reflection  and  hearing  Mr.  Cotton 
on  the  subject,  "  they  all  agreed  to  go  to  a  new  elec- 
tion ; "  which  issued  in  a  board  of  another  com- 
plexion, that  for  one  of  its  acts,  carrying  out  what 
it  appears  was  an  idea  of  Winthrop's,  —  at  all  events, 
an  idea  with  which  he  was  specially  associated  in  the 
public  mind,  —  endowed  future  Boston  with  the 
noble  legacy  of  her  Common. 


REVIVAL   OF  POLITICAL  STRIFE.         127 


CHAPTER   X. 

WINTHROP   DISCIPLINED   FOR   LENITY. 
(1635-1636.) 

The  revival  of  emigration,  which  Winthrop  had 
judged  it  wise  to  forecast  in  handling  the  land  ques- 
tion, set  in  with  vigour  in  1634,  —  Laud  supplying  the 
motive.  Ships  began  to  arrive  in  numbers,  —  in  a 
single  month  of  that  year  as  many  as  fifteen,  —  bring- 
ing passengers,  cattle,  military  and  other  stores ;  and 
returned  freighted  with  timber,  furs,  fish.  The  pulse 
of  the  colony  life  quickened ;  new  towns  were  planted, 
Ipswich,  Newbury,  Hingham,  Weymouth  ;  trade,  Eng- 
lish, Dutch,  West- Indian,  grew  apace.  All  of  which 
Winthrop  observes  with  great  satisfaction. 

But  Massachusetts  yet  fell  short  of  domestic  peace. 
QJnanimity  of  sentiment  regarding  possession  of  the 
charter  did  not  cure  division  regarding  government 
under  it.  The  Court  of  Elections  of  May,  1635, 
repeated,  as  we  have  said,  its  practical  comment  of 
the  previous  year  on  Mr.  Cotton's  view  of  official 
tenure,  by  choosing  John  Haynes  to  succeed  Gov- 
ernor Dudley,  —  "  partly,"  explains  Winthrop  with  a 
touch  of  irony,  "  because  the  people  would  exercise 
their  absolute  power."     Still  the  majority  were  not 


128  JOHN  W1NTHR0P. 

of  the  radical  creed  in  all  applications ;  for  a  sen- 
tence of  three  years'  disability  from  office  passed  by 
the  General  Court  next  preceding  on  Deputy  Israel 
Stoughton  of  Dorchester,  for  openly  maintaining  that 
the  power  of  Courts  of  Assistants  was  simply  "  min- 
isterial according  to  the  greater  vote  of  the  General 
Court,  and  not  magisterial  according  to  their  own 
discretion,"  was  by  this  Court  reaffirmed^  notwith- 
standing Stoughton  had  meantime  recanted.) 

The  subject,  however,  of  regulating  the  exercise  of 
authority  by  means  of  "  a  body  of  grounds  of  laws, 
in  resemblance  to  a  Magna  Charta,"  was  brought 
up  and  discussed,  and  some  steps  taken  to  provide 
such  an  instrument  j  but,  upon  further  reflection,  was 
indefinitely  postponed,  being  found  to  involve  the 
ticklish  question  of  the  charter.  How  so,  Winthrop, 
some  while  after,  sets  forth.  vjhe  only  laws,  he  says 
in  substance,  which  it  is  prudent  for  us  to  have,  are 
those  that  arise  "pro  re  nata ;  upon  occasions ;  cus- 
toms ;  consuetudines."  Should  we  frame  a  written 
code,  it  would  have  to  be,  in  points,  repugnant  to  the 
laws  of  England,  and  so  transgress  the  charter ;  but 
to  raise  up  laws  by  practice  and  custom  is  no  trans- 
gression. Thus,  for  example,  "  to  make  a  law  that 
marriages  should  not  be  solemnized  by  ministers  is 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England ;  but  to  bring  it  to 
a  custom  by  practice  for  the  magistrate  to  perform 
it  (as  is  the  case  with  u.s.)  is  no  law  made  repugnant " 
to  the  laws  of  England^)  Nice  steering,  lawyer  Win- 
throp, but  it  will  answer. 

Among  the  new-comers  of  1635  were  young  Sir 


YOUNG  SIR  HENRY  VANE.  1 29 

Henry  Vane  and  Rev.  Hugh  Peter,  whose  connection 
with  the  colony,  though  transient,  is  of  permanent 
interest.  The  latter  —  a  man  of  extraordinary  talent 
and  energy,  and  an  early  member  of  the  Bay  Com- 
pany —  was  installed  pastor  at  Salem,  where,  beside  car- 
ing for  the  church,  he  did  much  to  foster  the  spirit  of 
commercial  enterprise,  in  his  estimate  of  the  impor- 
tance of  which  he  was  after  Winthrop's  own  heart. 
Five  years  later,  while  in  England  on  public  business, 
he  became  active  in  the  struggle  between  king  and 
parliament,  and  never  returned.  He  was  chaplain 
to  Cromwell,  at  whose  funeral  he  walked  beside 
Milton ;  was  one  of  the  Regicides,  and  ended  on  the 
scaffold  at  the  Restoration. 

Vane  was  a  youth  of  twenty-three,  but  old  beyond 
his  years,  and  already  of  no  slight  experience  in  affairs 
of  State.  He  was,  as  the  world  knows,  one  of  the 
most  pure,  enlightened,  gallant  spirits  of  his  age  ;  des- 
tined also,  like  his  fellow-voyager  to  New  England,  to 
seal  his  devotion  to  liberty  with  his  blood.  "  Being 
called,"  says  Winthrop,  "to  the  obedience  of  the 
Gospel,  he  forsook  the  honours  and  preferments  of 
the  Court  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  Christ  in  their 
purity  here."  His  father,  chief  member  of  the  royal 
Privy  Council,  displeased  with  his  Puritan  bent, 
would  have  prevented  his  going;  but  on  bringing 
the  matter  to  the  king's  notice,  strangely  enough 
Charles  had  taken  the  young  man's  part,  and  given 
him  three  years'  leave  of  absence  for  the  trial  of  his 
experiment. 

Vane  and  Peter  at  once  interested  themselves  with 
9 


130  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

good  will,  heartily,  in  all  colony  concerns.  One 
evidence  of  which  is  that  soon  after  they  came  they 
invited  a  meeting  of  the  leaders  in  Boston,  to  see  if 
a  certain  alienation,  which  they  were  sorry  to  ob- 
serve among  them,  and  which  they  judged  to  head 
somehow  in  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  could  not  be 
healed  by  an  open  friendly  talk  together.  The 
meeting  having  convened,  Vane  and  Peter  declared 
its  object,  and  exhorted  to  freedom  of  utterance.  As 
is  usual  in  such  cases,  nobody  wanted  to  speak  first. 
Winthrop,  being  appealed  to,  said  that  he  was  not 
aware  of  any  alienation  on  his  part,  certainly  not 
from  his  brother  Dudley  since  their  happy  reconcil- 
iation ;  neither  was  he  aware  that  any  one  was  alien- 
ated from  him,  —  though  he  might  have  noticed  a 
manner  inclining  to  be  distant  toward  him  in  some 
quarters  of  late.  But  if  he  had  done  aught  amiss 
"  in  his  government  or  *  otherwise,"  and  it  were 
pointed  out  to  him,  he  would  endeavour,  by  God's 
grace,  to  amend  it.  Dudley,  in  his  turn,  said  the 
same  :  there  was  no  present  difference  between  him- 
self and  his  brother  Winthrop  that  he  knew  of;  and 
he  "left  it  to  others  to  utter  their  own  complaints." 
Finally,  since  some  one  must,  Governor  Haynes, 
with  great  reluctance,  and  hoping  not  to  give  offence, 
uncovered  the  cause  of  the  infelicity  Messrs.  Vane 
and  Peter  had  remarked.  ''The  fact  was,  Mr.  Win- 
throp, as  magistrate,  had  a  habit  of  dealing  "too 
remissly  in  point  of  justice,"  —  the  fault  of  an  ex- 
cessive leniency,  of  which  such  and  such  instances 
were  examplesTl   An  old  fault  this  was,  —  one  occa- 


WINTHROP   THE  LENIENT.  131 

sion,  it  will  be  recalled,  of  Dudley's  former  grievance, 
who  still,  it  may  be  surmised,  though  now  holding  his 
peace,  viewed  it  with  disapprobation.  Winthrop, 
while  protesting  that  the  indictment  was  overdrawn, 
admitted  that  for  substance  it  was  true.  But  at  the 
same  time  he  avowed  that  "it  was  his  judgment, 
that  in  the  infancy  of  plantations  justice  should  be 
administered  with  more  lenity  than  in  a  settled  state," 
which  the  reverend  elders  present,  being  asked  what 
they  thought  about  that,  agreed  was  a  mistake ;  that, 
on  the  contrary,  "  strict  discipline,  both  in  criminal 
offences  and  in  martial  affairs,  was  more  needful  in 
plantations  than  in  a  settled  state,"  since  they  were 
essentially  in  the  position  of  an  army  in  the  field. 

To  this  verdict  Winthrop  submitted  without  con- 
troversy, and  promised  that  he  would  try  to  do  better. 
\Whereupon  ensued  a  general  love-feast  of  fraternal 
sentiment,  and  for  practical  outcome  a  written  cov- 
enant subscribed  by  the  magistrates,  to  use  all  care 
in  the  future  to  work  harmoniously  together,  and  to 
rule  themselves  in  every  way  to  promote  the  respect 
and  dignity  of  their  office.  Item  :  to  diminish  oc- 
casions of  discord,  "trivial  things  should  be  ended 
in  the  towns,"  —  a  particular  worthy  of  note  as  illus- 
trating the  process  of  political  evolutional 

That  Winthrop  changed  his  mind  on  the  subject 
of  clemency  it  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  suppose.  It 
was  his  practice  to  make  the  best  of  circumstances 
he  could  not  control.  There  were  those  present  at 
this  meeting  who,  rather  than  put  up  with  what  they 
did  not  like  in  Massachusetts,  would  erelong  leave  it 


132  JOHy  WINTHROP. 

altogether.  He  was  going  to  stay ;  and  because  he 
stayed  Massachusetts  came  through  the  manifold 
tribulations  of  her  genesis  alive. 

It  is  a  not  improbable  conjecture,  —  though  only 
a  conjecture,  —  that  the  specific  "  remissness  in  point 
of  justice  "  leading  to  Winthrop's  call  to  account  at 
this  time  had  been  in  the  case  of  Roger  Williams. 
That  extraordinary  personage  came  over  by  the  ship 
that  brought  bread  in  the  Day  of  Distress  (Feb- 
ruary, 1631).  Whether,  on  the  whole,  since  he  was 
a  passenger,  the  arrival  of  that  ship  was  a  bless- 
ing, may  be  held  questionable;  for,  from  his  stepping 
on  shore  till  he  was  got  rid  of,  he  never  ceased  to 
be  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Massachusetts,  and  more 
than  that,  distinctly  one  of  her  dangers.  In  some 
respects  he  was  of  singular  merit.  His  name  is 
venerated  as  that  of  the  original  promulgator  of 
the  political  principle  of  religious  toleration.  He 
was  a  Christian  whose  grace  was  universally  con- 
fessed by  his  contemporaries;  and  he  exhibited,  his 
whole  life  through,  a  spirit  of  incomparable  benevo- 
lence and  magnanimity.  The  sweetness  of  his  tem- 
per was  proof  against  every  trial  incident  to  a  long 
career  of  unbroken  disputation.  The  wrath  he  in- 
cessantly and  justly  provoked  he  did  not  in  the 
least  himself  share.  He  was  never  known  to  speak 
an  angry  word.  Seldom  was  a  man  so  highly  re- 
garded for  his  virtues  as  was  he  by  the  very  people 
he  tormented.  But  he  was  the  genius  of  social  in- 
compatibility.    Everywhere  he  lingered,  there  forth- 


ROGER    WILLIAMS.  133 

with  sprang  up  strife,  and  in  an  acute  form.  The 
community  in  which  he  sojourned  he  invariably  set  by 
the  ears  and  embroiled  with  its  neighbours.  It  was 
he  who  started  the  "goodman"  wrangle  at  Plymouth,1 
where  he  lived  a  short  time.  Salem,  where  he  dwelt 
longest,  he  was  nearly  the  ruin  of.  At  one  period 
he  raised  an  incredible  pother  there  by  teaching  that 
women  ought  never  to  sit  unveiled  in  a  public  as- 
sembly ;  and  would  not,  on  principle,  engage  in  acts 
of  domestic  worship  with  his  wife  because  she  de- 
clined to  go  all  lengths  with  him  in  making  obedience 
to  that  rule  a  test  of  Christian  character. 

The  story  of  all  the  trouble  he  made  is  quite  too 
long  to  tell.  But  he  began  by  preaching  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  churches  to  repent  publicly  of  the  sin 
of  their  former  communion  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  duty  of  such  as  did  it  to  withdraw 
fellowship  from  such  as  did  not,  —  which  was  enough 
to  send  a  shiver  through  the  General  Court,  thinking 
how  it  would  sound  in  England.  He  also  taught, 
in  application  of  his  doctrine  of  "  soul  liberty,"  that 
magistrates  had  no  warrant  of  the  gospel  to  punish 
infractions  of  the  First  Table  of  the  Decalogue ; 
including  atheism,  blasphemy,  and  Sabbath-breaking. 
It  was  not  for  such  things,  however,  that  he  was  ulti- 
mately banished.  He  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  victim 
of  religious  bigotry.  He  was  nothing  of  the  sort. 
In  his  general  onslaught  on  the  errors  prevailing 
around  him, — -and  to  his  view  little  else  did  pre- 
vail, —  he  fell  foul  of  the  charter.  This  he  went  up 
1  Page  no. 


134  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

and  down  declaring  an  instrument  of  no  validity  what- 
soever, a  royal  thief's  conveyance  of  property  that 
was  none  of  his,  not  worth  the  paper  it  was  written 
on ;  that  all  titles  based  on  it  were  wholly  spurious, 
and  to  hold  them  otherwise  a  crime.  As  for  himself, 
he  would  not,  by  becoming  a  freeman,  partake  the 
iniquity.  The  outraged  government  of  course  com- 
manded him  to  stop  that  kind  of  talk,  or  it  would 
be  the  worse  for  him.  For  a  wonder,  —  it  was  his 
only  moment  of  such  weakness,  —  he  promised  to  do 
so.  But  he  was  not  able  to  keep  his  word.  His 
"  violent  and  tumultuous  carriage  against  the  charter  " 
was  resumed  and  maintained  with  exhaustless  perti- 
nacity. From  time  to  time  he  added  fresh  aggrava- 
tions; for  example,  he  proclaimed  that  the  magis- 
trates, in  tendering  to  unregenerate  persons  the  oath 
of  loyalty  to  the  commonwealth,  were  guilty  of 
causing  God's  name   to  be   taken   in  vain. 

Plainly  he  was  a  man  impossible  to  put  up  with  in 
the  circumstances.  At  length  (November,  1634) 
the  Assistants,  informed  that  he  "  had  broken  his 
promise  to  us  in  teaching  publicly  against  the  king's 
patent,  and  our  great  sin  in  claiming  right  thereby  to 
this  country,  etc.,  and  for  usual  terming  the  churches 
of  England  anti- Christian,"  took  order  for  his  trial. 
There  was  delay  in  the  proceedings ;  but  the  General 
Court  of  September,  1635,  finding  him  incorrigible, 
commanded  him  to  leave  Massachusetts  within  six 
weeks.  Before  the  limit  expired  —  it  being  under- 
stood that  he  planned  going  to  Narragansett  Bay  to 
start  a  new  settlement  there  —  it  was  extended  to 


ROGER    WILLIAMS.  135 

spring.  The  respite  thus  given  Williams  improved  by 
opening  such  a  winter  campaign  for  his  intolerable 
tenets  as  convinced  the  authorities  not  only  that  the 
postponement  of  the  execution  of  sentence  against 
him  had  been  a  mistake,  but  that  Narragansett  Bay 
was  not  sufficiently  remote  for  the  place  of  his  future 
residence.  Accordingly  a  military  guard  was  sent  to 
bring  him  to  Boston  for  shipment  by  a  vessel  about 
to  sail  for  England.  But  he  had  taken  flight.  He 
presently  turned  up  at  Narragansett  Bay,  where  in  the 
unfolding  of  events  he  became  the  father  (though 
always  the  uncomfortable  father)  of  Rhode  Island, 
fulfilling  there  the  term  of  his  mortal  belligerency. 
His  liberal,  ever  ready,  sometimes  heroic,  on  notable 
occasions  invaluable,  good  offices  in  behalf  of  Massa- 
chusetts, toward  which  he  characteristically  bore  not 
the  slightest  malice,  were  a  feature  of  his  later  career. 
It  is  a  suggestive  circumstance  that  it  was  only  a 
few  days  after  Williams's  escape  that  Winthrop  was 
dealt  with  for  his  fault  of  lenity.  That  he  warned 
him  to  take  himself  away  or  was  suspected  of  it,  there 
is  nothing  to  show.  But  the  fact  disclosed  by  Wil- 
liams thirty  years  later  that  during  his  succeeding 
wanderings  in  the  wilderness  there  reached  him  a 
communication  from  Winthrop  of  friendly  sympathy 
and  counsel,  leaves  small  room  for  doubt  that  the 
escape  was  not  unwelcome  to  him ;  none  at  all  that 
he  had  opposed  the  extreme  measure  of  transporta- 
tion. .The  two  maintained  an  affectionate  correspond- 
ence as  long  as  Winthrop  lived.  It  is  even  a  marvel 
that  the  colony  bore  with  Roger  Williams  as  it  did, 


136  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

when  its  alarm  for  the  charter  is  considered.  Which 
alarm  was  heightened  the  last  year  of  his  sojourn  in 
Massachusetts  by  an  incident  for  which  he  is  supposed 
to  have  been  largely  responsible. 

In  a  letter  of  Winthrop's  (November,  1634)  to 
John,  Jr.,  on  a  visit  to  the  old  country,  he  advises 
him  of  the  Court's  information,  "  that  some  of  Salem 
had  taken  out  a  piece  of  the  cross  in  their  ensign ; 
whereupon  we  sent  forth  an  attachment  to  bring  in 
the  parties  at  the  next  Court,  where  they  are  like  to 
be  punished  for  their  indiscreet  zeal,  for  the  people 
are  generally  offended  with  it." 

The  awkward  news  was  couched  in  these  general 
terms,  with  no  names  given,  and  the  unpopularity  of 
it  represented,  to  put  it  in  as  good  shape  as  might  be 
for  English  ears.  The  writer  well  knew  the  author  of 
the  unlucky  mishap  he  announced.  It  was  Endicott. 
A  short  time  before,  —  at  the  regular  Training  Day 
in  September,  on  a  guess,  —  in  an  access  of  indigna- 
tion inspired  by  the  recent  intelligence  of  the  recall 
of  the  charter,  mingled  with  scorn  of  a  popish  em- 
blem (though  that,  perhaps,  was  an  afterthought,  more 
or  less),  he  had  ripped  or  slashed  the  St.  George's 
Cross  out  of  the  British  flag,  in  the  face  and  eyes 
of  all  beholders.  Tradition,  intrinsically  credible,  as- 
cribes the  outburst  to  the  immediate  influence  of 
Roger  Williams.  No  more  unfortunate  a  thing  could 
have  occurred  at  that  juncture.  By  it  the  Salem 
worthy  had  made  himself  the  enfant  terrible  of  his 
political  household. 


ENDICOTT' S  BLUNDER.  137 

The  government,  frightened  at  prospect  of  the 
trouble  his  blunder  will  make  abroad,  —  the  more  so 
as  he  is  a  magistrate, — take  instant  measures  to  obtain 
its  formal  condemnation  by  the  Legislature ;  which 
proves  not  an  easy  thing  to  accomplish.  The  free- 
men, just  now  in  fighting  mood,  are  disposed  to  view 
the  redoubtable  Endicott  as  a  hero  rather  than  as  a 
culprit ;  not  only  so,  but  to  our  further  embarrassment 
(though,  if  the  truth  were  told,  we  a  good  deal  sym- 
pathize with  the  idea) ,  they  loudly  propose  that  here- 
after we  dispense  with  the  king's  colours  altogether. 
The  colony  is  in  a  highly  irrational  state.  The  best 
that  can  be  done  'for  the  time  is  to  send  a  letter 
"  under  all  our  hands  "  (Winthrop  most  probable 
draughtsman),  to  private  parties  in  England,  giving  it 
to  be  understood  there  that  our  zeal  against  popery  is 
at  the  bottom  of  all  the  fuss.  As  to  what,  in  the  pres- 
ent excitement,  shall  be  done  about  our  train- band 
ensigns,  we  refer  it  to  the  Military  Commission  with 
power,  by  whom  it  is  allowed  that  they  be  laid  aside, 
and  others,  purified  of  the  cross,  used  instead,  ex- 
cept that  Castle  Island  shall  float  the  king's  arms, 
which,  however,  it  somehow  fails  to  do  ;  as  will  prove 
awkward  for  us,  when  by  and  by  ships  from  England 
—  for  instance,  the  St.  Patrick,  owned  by  Thomas 
Wentworth,  Earl  of  Strafford  —  coming  into  harbour, 
notice  the  omission.  It  was  not  till  the  Court  of 
Elections  the  next  year  (May,  1635)  tnat  tne  matter 
could  be  got  to  an  issue.  First,  Endicott  was  left  out 
of  his  place  as  magistrate,  which  the  deputies  by 
that   time  could  see  was  unavoidable ;    then,  upon 


138  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

recommendaLion  of  a  committee,  the  court  "  censured 
him  to  be  sadly  admonished  for  his  offense,  which 
accordingly  he  was,  and  also  disabled  from  bearing 
any  office  in  the  commonwealth  for  the  space  of  a 
year  next  ensuing." 

(JBut  all  this  while,  in  the  English  quarter  the  skies 
were  darkening,  and  the  third  attempt  on  the  charter 
impending.  At  length  the  king's  government  was 
taking  Massachusetts  seriously.  When  Charles  granted 
the  charter  in  1629,  it  was,  as  is  conceivable,  in  the 
thought  that  it  was  a  convenient  thing  thus  to  facili- 
tate the  elimination  from  the  ranks  of  his  subjects  of 
the  heads  of  an  element  that  was  his  pest.  It  was  a 
good  way  to  be  rid  of  them ;  and  once  out  of  sight 
they  were  pretty  much  out  of  mind  in  high  places,  for 
a  time.  But  now  the  thing  they  had  planted  in  the 
obscure  distance  was  becoming  somewhat,  and  a 
considerable  somewhat,  with  unruly  ways  of  its 
own,  capable  of  such  mischief,  obviously  requiring 
attention. 

The  failure  (and  more)  to  obtain  surrender  of  the 
charter  in  1634  had  shown  that  the  new  royal  com- 
mission needed  further  means  of  enforcing  its  decrees. 
These  would  soon  be  forthcoming.  Meantime  effort 
was  made  to  arrest  the  growth  of  the  ill-behaved 
colony.  Better  deal  with  our  rebellion-breeding  non- 
conformity here,  than  at  arms'  length  across  the 
Atlantic.  By*  dktMfHTlssaea  in  December,  1634,  the 
lords  commissioners  undertook  to  block  emigration, 
but  without  success.  Ways  were  found  of  getting 
through  the  net.    A  more  promising  scheme,  however, 


THIRD  ASSAULT  ON  THE   CHARTER.       139 

was  maturing.  In  April,  1635,  tne  °M  Council  for 
New  England,  of  which  the  Bay  Company  had  its 
original  grant,  and  which  in  not  less  than  twenty-three 
similar  grants  had  conveyed  all  the  territory  at  its 
disposal,  —  portions  of  it  over  and  over,  —  applied  to 
the  crown  for  leave  to  dissolve.  Whose  hand  directed 
this  move,  and  the  object  of  it,  may  be  not  doubtfully 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  among  the  reasons  of  it 
assigned  were,  that  the  charter  of  the  Bay  Company 
had  been  "surreptitiously  gotten"  in  derogation  of 
previously  existing  rights ;  and  that  the  occupants  of 
the  land  in  that  manner  possessed  "  made  themselves 
a  free  people  and  for  such  hold  themselves  at  pre- 
sent." For  this  there  was  no  remedy  but  "  for  his 
Majesty  to  take  the  whole  business  into  his  own 
hands,"  —  which  meant  more  distinctly  than  before  the 
revocation  of  all  the  Council's  grants,  and  the  rever- 
sion of  the  title  of  the  whole  of  New  England  to  the 
crown.  Laud  was  behind  it.  It  was  his  improved 
way  of  getting  at  Massachusetts.  But  the  Council  made 
a  condition ;  namely,  that  the  domain  thus  reclaimed 
should  be  cut  into  sections  and  parcelled  by  lot  among 
its  members,  —  which  condition  was  accepted.  In 
this  partition  Massachusetts  fell  to  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges,  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  John  Mason, 
with  slices  to  some  of  the  rest.  Next  a  Quo  War- 
ranto suit  to  oust  the  Company  was  brought  in 
Westminster  Hall,  and,  not  without  resistance  from 
members  and  friends  in  England,  was  carried.  Next 
the  king  appointed  Gorges  governor-general  of  New 
England,  for  whose  speedy  despatch  thither  prepara- 


140  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

tions  were  immediately  set  in  train.  Nor  was  he  to 
go  unfurnished  for  his  occasions  :  a  thousand  soldiers 
wpuld  accompany  him. 

"\To  every  human  appearance  it  is  all  over  with 
Massachusetts.  Where  the  charter  is,  is  of  no  con- 
sequence now.  There  is  no  alternative  but  to  aban- 
don the  country  or  lie  down  under  Laud's  sceptre.^J 

Of  the  colony's  bearing  under  this  sentence  of 
death,  which  ere  it  was  aware  was  on  point  of  exe- 
cution, there  is  little  record;  but  we  apprehend 
a  sigh  of  deep  exquisite  relief,  as  of  one  who  has 
been  holding  his  breath,  in  Winthrop's  entry  in  the 
Journal  when  the  danger  is  past:  "The  project 
took  not  effect.  The  Lord  frustrated  their  design." 
Gorges's  departure  was  delayed ;  the  "  great  ship  " 
in  which  he  was  to  embark,  "being  launched,  fell 
in  sunder  in  the  midst."  John  Mason,  chief  insti- 
gator of  the  hostile  enterprise,  named  Vice-Admiral 
of  New  England  under  the  new  regime,  died.  At 
that  moment  the  Ship  Money  question  assumed 
the  volcanic  phase.  Scotland's  wrath  at  the  attempt 
to  bow  her  neck  to  the  yoke  of  prelacy  boiled  over. 
All  at  once  the  royal  government  had  its  hands  too 
full  to  spare  a  finger  to  the  colonies.  "  All  the  busi- 
ness fell  on  sleep ; "  and  so  Massachusetts  again 
escaped  like  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler, 
unhurt  and  safe  for  the  present. 


SIR  HENRY  VANE  GOVERNOR.  141 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SIR   HENRY   VANE    GOVERNOR. 
(1636-1638.) 

The  coming  of  young  Vane  (October,  1635)  at  a 
moment  when  the  fate  of  the  colony  was  in  suspense 
was  exceedingly  welcome.  He  was  a  scion  of  nobil- 
ity, whom  it  was  hoped  other  like-minded  noble- 
men would  follow,  —  a  circumstance  ardently  desired, 
both  for  honour  and  for  safety.  He  was,  moreover, 
eldest  son  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  British 
subjects,  and  was  himself  on  friendly  personal  foot- 
ing with  the  king.  No  time  was  lost  in  turning  to 
account  the  good  fortune  of  his  appearance  on  the 
scene.  Boston  received  him  socially  with  open 
arms ;  the  General  Court  appointed  him  to  a  vacancy 
in  the  Military  Commission ;  and  at  the  next  Court  of 
Elections  (May,  1636)  he  was  elevated  over  all  heads 
to  the  highest  office,  with  Winthrop  for  his  deputy. 
"  Because  he  was  son  and  heir  to  a  privy  counsellor  in 
England,"  says  Winthrop,  "  the  ships  congratulated  his 
election  with  a  volley  of  great  shot."  The  first  matter 
he  was  called,  as  governor,  to  deal  with,  was  a  very 
serious  situation,  produced  by  the  non-display  of  the 
British  flag  from  the  fort  on  Castle  Island,  at  which 


142  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

certain  masters  of  British  vessels  had  taken  great 
umbrage.  It  could  hardly  be  otherwise  than  that 
one  so  young  and  so  new  to  the  country  as  Vane 
should  prove  on  the  whole  unequal  to  the  responsi- 
bilities of  his  position.  Yet  it  may  be  doubted  if 
there  was  any  one  besides  in  Massachusetts  who 
could  have  handled  that  difficulty  so  successfully, 
—  partly  because  he  was  the  known  son  and  heir  of 
a  privy  councillor,  and  partly  by  the  diplomatic  tact 
with  which  he  managed  the  scandalized  captains. 
Too  recently  arrived  to  be  affected  by  the  agitation 
Endicott's  raid  on  the  cross  had  kindled,  he  clearly 
saw  that  the  fort  must  fly  the  king's  colours,  and 
carried  the  point,  against  opposition  from  influential 
quarters.  But  he  would  not  always  be  so  judicial. 
The  year  of  his  administration  was  fruitful  of  events, 
and  in  passages  tempestuous. 

Delivered  for  the  time  out  of  the  paw  of  the  lion, 
the  colony,  now  fast  growing  in  numbers  and  full  of 
the  spirit  of  energy,  was  astir  with  life  in  all  direc- 
tions. \Jfhe  General  Court  of  May,  1636,  did  things 
more  important  than  elect  the  new  executive.  It 
set  forward  changes  in  the  government,  —  progressive 
mostly,  but  with  one  conspicuous  exception.  That 
exception  was  the  institution  —  before  determined 
on,  however  —  of  a  Standing  Council,  consisting  of 
"  a  certain  number  of  magistrates  for  the  term  of 
their  lives "  (the  governor  for  the  time  being  to  be 
always  a  member  and  president),  of  authority  to  ex- 
ercise "  out  of  court  "  such  powers  as  the  legisla- 
ture  should   ordain.      Winthrop   and    Dudley  were 


COUNCIL  FOR  LIFE.  M3 

created  members  of  it.  This  was  nothing  less  than 
the  erection  of  a  new  branch  of  government,  and  one 
wholly  unprovided  by  the  charter.  But  our  particular 
intention  therein  —  for  by  the  hand  of  Master  Cot- 
ton we  instantly  inform  Lord  Say  and  Sele  of  what  we 
have  done  —  is  to  meet,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  views 
of  those  noble  personages  who  are  inclined  to  join  us. 
We  are  unable  to  concede  them  the  dignity  of  an 
hereditary  order  in  our  commonwealth,  but  we  will 
come  as  near  to  it  as  we  can.  And  beyond  this,  it 
will  perhaps  not  be  amiss  to  cast  such  an  anchor 
to  windward  against  the  democratic  tendency  so  ob- 
servable among  our  people^ 

The  Standing  Council  was  a  weakling  from  the 
start.  The  only  other  member  ever  added  to  it  was 
Endicott,  a  year  later.  Since  the  noble  personages 
it  was  to  allure  were  not  forthcoming,  Massachusetts 
had  no  use  for  it.  \ltgrew  into  general  disfavour,  and 
the  General  Court  uy  and  by  hamstrung  it  by  ruling 
that  though  the  members  of  it  had  a  life  tenure,  their 
annual  election  was  required  to  keep  their  authority 
alive.  It  was  practically  defunct  from  that  time, 
though  it  remained  above  ground  some  years  longer. 
Winthrop,  while  saying  that  with  the  honour  of  it  he 
"  was  no  more  in  love  than  with  an  old  frieze  coat  *m 
a  summer's  day,"  championed  it  to  its  last  breatr^S, 
\Other  acts  of  this  Court  (May,  1636)  were  of  a 
aiftcrent  tenor,  and  mark  a  stage  of  healthful  expan- 
sion in  the  organized  life  of  the  State,  —  particularly 
the  establishment  at  separate  points  of  four  local 
courts,  at  which  "  places  of  judicature,"  by  the  way, 


144  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

"the   king's  majesty's   arms   shall   be    erected,"  as, 
doubtless,  Governor  Vane  insists^ 

This  year  1636  brought  to  the  colony  what  was 
felt  to  be  a  great  and  irreparable  loss,  —  the  migra- 
tion, under  leadership  of  Thomas  Hooker,  of  the 
three  plantations  of  Newtown,  Watertown,  and  Dor- 
chester to  Connecticut.  The  large  notice  in  the 
Journal  of  this  secession  —  for  such  it  was  —  re- 
veals the  consequence  Winthrop  attached  to  it. 
That  it  caused  him  extreme  sorrow  is  plain.  As  has 
been  said,  nothing  was  ever  so  trying  to  him  as  that 
any  one  should  voluntarily  forsake  Massachusetts. 
This  departure  was  not,  indeed,  like  retreating  back 
to  England ;  but  for  all  that  it  was  a  desertion  that 
could  not  be  justified,  and  that  he  strove  by  every 
means  in  his  power  to  avert.  It  had  been  a  good 
while  in  train.  When  Hooker,  Haynes,  and  Stone, 
with  their  company,  landed  in  the  autumn  of  1633, 
they  found,  it  will  be  remembered,  magistrates  and 
freemen  in  warm  contention.  Their  position  be- 
tween the  parties  was  embarrassing,  —  their  sym- 
pathies going  personally  one  way,  politically  an- 
other. They  were  apparently  not  long  in  deciding 
to  evade  the  conflict,  which  they  foresaw  would  be 
protracted,  by  taking  themselves  entirely  away.  Con- 
necticut was  known  to  be  a  place  desirable  for  settle- 
ment, and  upon  it  they  fixed  their  choice.  From  the 
outset  the  Bay  leaders  discouraged  and  opposed  the 
design,  —  vetoed  it  to  the  extent  of  their  power. 
The  kind  of  reasons  brought  forward  against  it  in 


THE   CONNECTICUT  SECESSION.  145 

the  General  Court  we  learn  from  Winthrop, — the 
impression  being  unavoidable  that  in  reporting  them 
he  reports  himself.  They  were,  in  condensed  form, 
as  follows  :  That  our  friends,  "  being  knit  to  us  in  one 
body,"  are  in  conscience  bound  to  abide  with  us  \ 
that  for  our  own  sakes,  in  our  weak  and  exposed 
condition,  we  ought  not  to  consent  to  their  going ; 
besides,  the  rumour  of  their  going  will  tend  to  keep 
others  from  coming,  —  to  our  injury;  that  Connec- 
ticut is  a  region  of  unknown  perils,  lying,  moreover, 
beyond  our  patent,  which  we  may  not  safely  give 
any  one  authority  to  inhabit ;  that  there  is  plenty  of 
room  for  Mr.  Hooker  and  his  congregation  in  Massa- 
chusetts, of  which  we  beg  them  to  take  their  choice  and 
be  content ;  that,  finally,  "  the  removing  of  a  candle- 
stick is  a  great  judgment  which  is  to  be  avoided." 

The  argument,  it  is  true,  did  not  touch  the  real 
point,  yet  there  was  much  force  in  it ;  a  good  deal  of 
pathos,  too,  when  it  is  considered  what  a  serious 
diminishing  of  the  little  commonwealth,  whose  "  chief 
poverty,"  as  John  Cotton  said,  was  "poverty  of 
men,"  the  proposed  exodus  would  be.  It  seems  to 
have  been  not  without  effect.  At  any  rate,  for  a  time 
after  its  first  broaching  the  matter  rested.  The  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Haynes  governor  the  next  year  (1635)  may 
have  had  an  influence  to  postpone  it,  —  was  perhaps 
of  that  intention  ;  but  it  was  only  postponed.  In  the 
summer  of  1636  the  project  —  joined  meanwhile  by 
the  bulk  of  Watertown  and  Dorchester,  in  which  the 
anti-magisterial  element  was  strong  —  was  carried 
out ;  and  Connecticut's  original  Three  River  Towns, 

10 


146  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

Hartford,  Windsor,  and  Wethersfield,  were  planted,1 
—  whereby  a  quarter  of  the  strength  of  Massachusetts 
quitted  her  jurisdiction,  and  without  her  will.  But  it 
produced  no  breach  of  friendship.  Winthrop  and 
Hooker  loved  each  other  living  and  dying,  and  in  the 
end  the  withdrawal  proved  an  auspicious  enlargement. 
Of  it  came  a  new  State,  which  in  important  respects 
profited  by  its  mother's  experience ;  for  the  Con- 
stitution of  Connecticut,  when  it  came  presently  to 
be  framed,  embodied  none  of  those  features  that 
were  the  cause  of  strife  in  Massachusetts. 

During  Vane's  administration  occurred  the  first 
serious  collision  with  the  Indians.  The  occasion  of 
it  was  the  killing  of  the  adventurous  John  Oldham, 
the  colony's  explorer-in-chief,  by  the  Block  Island 
natives,  —  summarily  avenged,  though  not  without 
previous  endeavour  to  bring  the  guilty  individuals  to 
justice,  —  in  the  ravage  of  Block  Island  and  a  bloody 
stroke  on  the  Pequots  of  the  neighbouring  mainland, 
suspected  of  harbouring  the  murderers,  by  a  force 
under  Endicott.  A  page  of  early  Massachusetts  his- 
tory not  pleasant  to  read  ;  but  it  shows  the  apprehen- 
sion of  danger  from  the  savages,  by  which  the  colony 
was  haunted,  that  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  strike 
terror  into  them  by  such  a  blow.  It  was  probably  in 
consequence  of  this  incident  that  the  colony  at 
about  that  time  bettered  its  military  establishment 
by  organizing  the  militia  of  the  towns  into  three  regi- 

1  The  same  migration  also  included  a  company  from  Rox- 
bury  that  planted  at  Agawam  (Springfield),  which,  however,  the 
subsequent  adjustment  of  boundaries  restored  to  the  Bay. 


FOUNDING  OF  HARVARD.  147 

ments,  —  named  the  East,  South,  and  North  Regi- 
ments, —  of  which  Winthrop,  Haynes,  and  Endicott 
were  made  the  colonels.  Colonel  Winthrop  thence- 
forward comes  often  into  view  on  duty  as  a  soldier, 
diligently  attentive  to  the  discipline  of  his  command. 

Vane's  term  is  illustrious  in  the  annals  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  of  America,  as  identified  with  the  incep- 
tion of  the  collegiate  school  which  was  the  embryo  of 
Harvard  University.  For  its  foundation  the  General 
Court  of  October,  1636,  set  aside  out  of  the  public 
funds  ^"400,  —  a  magnificent  sum,  when  the  resources 
of  the  colony,  at  that  moment  strained  to  meet  its  mili- 
tary expenses,  are  considered.  The  execution  of  the 
plan  was  intrusted  to  a  commission,  of  which,  it 
almost  goes  without  saying,  Winthrop  was  chairman. 
The  rest  were  all  ministers.  With  the  ministers  the 
idea  had  originated.  They  were  the  pre-eminent 
fathers  and  fosterers  of  the  educational  institutions  of 
the  State,  soon  to  include  the  system  of  common 
schools,  —  which  fact  is  of  itself  their  sufficient  clear- 
ance of  the  charge  that  they  held  themselves  a 
priestly  class,  appointed  to  rule  the  minds  of  men  by 
force  of  official  authority.  That  they  had  reached 
the  final,  irrefragable  interpretation  of  the  Christian 
doctrines  they  were,  it  is  true,  as  absolutely  certain  as 
the  Vatican.  They  abominated  dissent,  and  were  in- 
tolerant of  it.  Yet  as  religious  teachers  they  were  far 
from  requiring  acceptance  of  those  doctrines  on  the 
faith  of  a  blind  acquiescence.  For  their  saving  effect 
they  depended  on  an  intelligent  embrace  of  them  in 


143  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

the  light  of  their  reasons.  It  was,  in  their  view,  the 
property  of  a  man  to  have  opinions,  and  of  a  Chris- 
tian man  to  read  the  Bible  for  himself  and  to  know 
the  grounds  of  his  creed.  Of  such  an  exaltation  of 
individual  responsibility,  consequences  they  would 
have  deemed  frightful  would  be  the  ultimate  fruit; 
but  they  believed  in  it,  and  on  that  account  set  the 
value  of  a  vital  interest  on  education. 

Scarcely  could  there  be  expressed  a  more  appreci- 
ative and  just  eulogy  of  the  Massachusetts  founders  in 
this  respect  —  applicable  to  the  ministers,  above  all  — 
than  that  pronounced  by  the  late  Roman  Catholic 
Archbishop  Hughes,  in  a  public  lecture  given  in  the 
city  of  New  York  in  1852  :  — 

"Next  to  religion  they  prized  education.  If  their  lot 
had  been  cast  in  some  pleasant  place  of  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  they  would  have  sown  wheat  and  educated 
their  children ;  but  as  it  was,  they  educated  their  children, 
and  planted  whatever  might  grow  and  ripen  on  that  scanty 
soil  with  which  capricious  Nature  had  tricked  oifand  dis- 
guised the  granite  beds  beneath.  Other  colonies  would 
have  brought  up  some  of  the  people  to  school;  they,  if  I 
may  be  allowed  so  to  express  it,  let  down  the  school  to 
all  the  people,  not  doubting  but  by  doing  so  the  people 
and  the  school  would  rise  of  themselves." 

But  the  year  of  Vane's  administration  was  also 
made  unhappily  memorable,  and  his  official  experi- 
ence embittered,  by  the  rise  and  rage  of  the  great 
Antinomian  Controversy.  Of  this  famous  convul- 
sion, theologically  viewed,  it  is  no  simple  matter,  at 
this  day,  to  form  a  clear  idea,  much  less  give  a  clear 


THE  ANTINOMIAN  CONTROVERSY.        149 

account.  Not  for  lack  of  material.  A  considerable 
library  of  its  literature  survives  as  its  relic,  if  one  has 
the  fortitude  to  read  it. 

It  originated  in  the  religious  teaching  of  Mrs.  Ann 
Hutchinson,  ancestress  of  the  later  royal  governor 
and  historian  of  that  name.  This  lady  came  to  Bos- 
ton with  her  husband  in  1634,  drawn,  it  is  said,  by 
her  desire  to  enjoy  again  the  ministry  of  John  Cotton, 
who  had  been  her  pastor  in  England. 

She  was  a  woman  of  extraordinary  talent,  of  an 
intense,  enthusiastic  religious  nature,  with  a  mind  ab- 
sorbed in  spiritual  contemplations,  and  with  views 
of  her  own  on  some  very  deep  questions;  of  a 
rarely  benevolent  heart  as  well,  abounding  in  offices 
of  neighbourly  kindness,  especially  toward  those  of 
her  own  sex,  with  whom  in  her  new  home  she  soon 
became  a  favourite,  and  among  whom  she  after  a 
time  established  a  meeting  for  religious  edification. 
At  this  meeting  her  mischief  began,  for  there  she  ex- 
pounded her  peculiar  tenets,  and  having  a  witching 
tongue,  soon  made  converts  to  them,  —  Mistress  Mar- 
garet Winthrop  not  one,  we  may  be  sure. 

These  tenets  Winthrop,  whose  report  of  the  Con- 
troversy in  its  progressive  stages  —  albeit  thickly  in- 
terspersed with  the  "  etc.'s  "  and  blank  spaces  that 
denote  the  record  unfinished  —  is  quite  full,  suc- 
cinctly describes  as  follows  :  "  1 .  That  the  person  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  a  sanctified  person.  2.  That 
no  sanctification  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our 
justification." 

"Dangerous   errors,"  he  calls  them,  adding  that 


150  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

from  them  "grew  many  branches,"  —  proof  of  which 
latter  statement  is  afforded  in  the  circumstance  that 
at  a  three  weeks  long  synod  convened  in  the  course 
of  the  Controversy,  as  many  as  eighty-two  distinct 
false  opinions,  progeny  of  said  errors,  were  "  confuted 
and  confounded." 

When  Winthrop  himself  says,  referring  to  one  of 
several  occasions  on  which  it  was  endeavoured  to  end 
hostilities  by  conference,  that  the  differences  were 
stated  "  in  a  very  narrow  scantling,"  —  so  narrow  that 
u  except  men  of  good  understanding,  and  such  as 
knew  the  bottom  of  the  tenents  of  those  of  the  other 
party,  few  could  see  where  the  difference  was,  and 
indeed  it  seemed  so  small  as  .  .  .  they  might  easily 
have  come  to  reconciliation," — one  may  be  excused 
for  judging  the  attempt  to  unravel  the  jangle,  however 
successful,  not  at  present  worth  while. 

The  term  "Antinomian,"  it  should  be  understood, 
applied  to  the  followers  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  was  an 
opprobious  epithet  by  which  they  were  stigmatized  as 
reproducing  the  scandal  of  a  fanatical  German  sect 
so  named,  cast  up  in  the  ferment  of  the  Reformation ; 
its  distinguishing  feature  the  doctrine  —  said  to  have 
been  illustrated  in  practice  —  that  justification  by 
faith  releases  from  the  moral  law. 

Those  to  whom  the  name  was  given  in  Massachu- 
setts —  Winthrop  never  uses  it  —  ever  protested 
themselves  libelled  by  it.  Nor,  with  insignificant  ex- 
ceptions, were  facts  to  justify  the  insinuation  it  con- 
veyed even  alleged.  The  only  exception,  indeed,  at 
all  noteworthy,  was  Captain  John  Underhill,  the  Stand- 


THE  ANTJNOMIAN  CONTROVERSY.        15 1 

ish  of  the  Bay,  whose  espousal  of  the  Hutchinson 
principles  may  well  have  been  to  the  dismay  of  other 
adherents.  Of  undoubted  merit  as  a  soldier,  his  rep- 
utation as  a  saint  was  subject  to  frequent  eclipse  by 
his  lapses  from  morality.  His  standing  in  the  church 
was  maintained  by  a  succession  of  public  repentances, 
or  explanations  of  ambiguous  appearances,  which 
Winthrop  describes  with  a  serious  gravity  that  reveals 
his  own  guileless  heart.  At  last,  however,  even  Win- 
throp found  his  contrition  unedifying ;  for  in  setting 
down  one  of  the  last  of  its  many  displays,  he  inter- 
jects the  contemptuous  remark,  "  He  spake  well  save 
that  his  blubbering,  etc.,  interrupted  him."  An  Anti- 
nomian  gospel  was  just  suited  to  the  captain's  needs. 
Recounting,  himself,  his  happy  experience  thereby,  he 
said  that  • "  he  had  lain  under  a  spirit  of  bondage  and 
a  legal  way  five  years,  and  could  get  no  assurance ) 
till  at  length  as  he  was  taking  a  pipe  of  tobacco,  the 
Spirit  sent  home  an  absolute  promise  of  free  grace 
with  such  assurance  and  joy  as  he  never  since  doubted 
of  his  good  estate,  neither  should  he  though  he 
should  fall  into  sin." 

Questioned  with  regard  to  the  tobacco  clause,  he  had 
the  effrontery  to  reply  that  "  as  the  Lord  was  pleased 
to  convert  Paul  as  he  was  in  persecuting,  etc.,  so  he 
might  manifest  himself  to  him  as  he  was  taking  the 
moderate  use  of  the  creature  called  tobacco."  The 
assurance  of  his  good  estate  did  not  fail  of  being  put 
to  the  identical  test  he  indicated.  He  was  shortly 
summoned  before  the  church  to  answer  to  the  charge 
of  incontinency,  with  the  evidence  quite  against  him. 


152  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

Tangled  as  the  Controversy  was  in  its  polemical 
aspect,  how  it  produced  the  state  of  things  and  led 
to  the  issues  identified  with  it,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand.  The  differences  it  bred  soon  passed  the 
bounds  of  opinion.  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  radical  offence 
in  the  first  place  was  her  claim  of  a  special  spiritual 
illumination,  than  which  nothing  was  more  abhorrent 
to  the  Puritan  principle  of  solving  all  questions  of 
faith  and  duty  by  the  light  of  the  Written  Word. 
She  also,  in  the  same  line  of  departure  from  estab- 
lished modes  of  thinking,  taught  that  the  state  of 
grace  was  alone  to  be  predicated  on  an  explicit  inte- 
rior supernatural  certification,  lacking  which  there 
could  be  absolutely  no  evidence  of  it.  All  this  was 
extra- biblical,  and  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  creed 
of  moral  anarchy.  Erected  into  a  standard  by  which 
ministers  were  judged  as  to  whether  or  no  their  gospel 
was  genuine,  it  soon  developed  the  conclusion,  which 
was  proclaimed,  that  the  only  ministers  of  the  entire 
colony  who  preached  "a  covenant  of  grace,"  and 
were  entitled  to  respect  in  the  sacred  office,  were 
John  Wheelwright,  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  brother-in-law, 
and  Mr.  Cotton.  The  rest  preached  "  a  covenant  of 
works,"  and  were  all  frauds.  "  Now,"  said  Elder 
Welde,  of  Roxbury,  "  the  faithful  ministers  of  Christ 
must  have  dung  cast  on  their  faces,  and  be  no  better 
than  legal  preachers,  Baal's  priests,  Popish  factors, 
Scribes,  Pharisees,  and  opposers  of  Christ  himself." 

In  Boston  the  novelty  spread  as  by  contagion.  The 
church  there  as  a  whole,  magnates  and  all,  with  Gov- 
ernor Vane  in  the  lead,  went  after  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 


THE  ANTIN0M1AN  CONTROVERSY.        153 

and  endorsed  this  intolerable  discrimination.  There 
were  numbers  who,  for  a  testimony,  when  Elder 
Wilson  —  he  was  among  the  banned  —  rose  in  the 
pulpit,  would  leave  the  meeting-house.  Of  Cotton 
it  should  be  said,  that  while  for  a  time  counted  in  the 
Hutchinson  party,  it  was  rather  by  allowance  on  his 
part,  for  old  friendship's  sake.  Before  matters  came 
to  their  worst,  after  some  trimming  he  extricated  him- 
self, though  not  without  damage.  Not  quite  everybody 
went  with  the  stream.  There  were  a  few  who  kept 
their  heads,  —  a  small  few,  —  and  one  of  them  was 
John  Winthrop.  When  the  infatuated  church  would 
have  brought  in  Wheelwright  to  supply  what,  since 
Wilson  was  an  empty  vessel,  was  now  held  a  vacancy 
in  its  ministry,  he  would  not  have  it.  He  was  pacific 
in  tone,  but  very  plain-spoken  and  decided.  Those 
who  were  grieved  by  the  positiveness  of  his  oppo- 
sition he  reminded  that  "  they  well  knew  his  manner 
of  speech  was  always  earnest  in  things  which  he  con- 
ceived to  be  serious."  A  line  of  personal  portraiture 
this,  to  be  made  note  of.  He  had  a  strong  way  of 
speaking,  it  seems,  not  soothing  to  the  opposite  side. 
Referring  to  the  inward-light  doctrine,  he  said  that 
as  for  himself,  "  if  any  brother  desired  to  see  what 
light  he  walked  by,  he  would  be  ready  to  impart  it  to 
him."  Upon  which  offer  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
pause  and  a  silence  ;  for  the  Journal  remarks,  "  How 
this  was  taken  by  the  congregation  does  not  appear, 
for  no  man  spake  to  it."  But  the  church  forbore  to 
install  Mr.  Wheelwright. 

Though  the  Hutchinson  faction  made  so  nearly  a 


154  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

clean  sweep  of  Boston,  its  conquest,  save  in  the  case 
of  individuals,  extended  "no  farther.  The  people  of 
the  other  towns  naturally  stood  by  their  insulted  pas- 
tors. It  was  Boston  against  the  Colony.  Through- 
out the  Bay  the  excitement  rose  to  an  intense  pitch. 
To  Governor  Vane,  freely  charged  with  being  respon- 
sible for  all  the  trouble,  the  situation  became  ex- 
tremely uncomfortable.  Anxious  to  take  himself  out 
of  it,  he  called  the  General  Court  together  (De- 
cember, 1636),  and  desired  of  it  leave  to  resign  his 
office  and  go  home,  pleading  that  his  private  interests 
required  his  presence  there. 

This  was  a  surprising  request,  and,  in  view  of  diffi- 
culties with  the  Indians  and  with  the  French  in  Nova 
Scotia  just  then  arising,  untimely ;  and  he  was  urged 
to  reconsider  it.  Whereupon  the  worried  youth 
"  brake  forth  into  tears,"  saying  that  since  he  was 
accused  of  being  the  cause  of  the  miserable  dissen- 
sion into  which  the  Commonwealth  was  fallen,  "he 
thought  it  best  he  should  withdraw."  The  Court 
then  yielded  its  consent.  Boston,  however,  which 
could  not  spare  him,  persuaded  him  to  stay.  He 
had  reason  to  regret  his  compliance.  At  a  meet- 
ing of  magistrates  and  elders  soon  after  held  to 
discuss  the  condition  of  affairs,  Hugh  Peter  came 
down  from  Salem,  and  openly  gave  his  friend  Vane  a 
very  plain  piece  of  his  mind,  to  the  purpose  that  he 
was  quite  too  presuming  and  heady  for  so  young  a 
man,  —  which  the  governor  neither  took  kindly  nor 
profited  by. 

This  meeting  had  an  effect  contrary  to  that  de- 


THE  ANTINOMIAN  CONTROVERSY.        155 

signed.  Indeed,  whatever  was  tried  to  assuage  the 
strife  seemed  but  to  contribute  to  its  violence.  A 
nominally  irenic  sermon  by  Wheelwright  at  a  fast  for 
reconciliation  (January,  1637)  went  so  wide  of  its 
mark  as  to  be  understood  to  suggest  the  policy  of 
forcible  resistance  to  the  civil  arm  in  not  impossible 
contingencies,  and  to  occasion  the  preacher's  arraign- 
ment by  the  next  General  Court;  which  found  him 
guilty  of  utterances  dangerous  to  the  state,  as  tending 
to  sedition.  Against  this  judgment  Vane  and  some 
other  members  of  the  Court  offered  a  protest,  but  it 
was  not  received.  A  numerously  signed  petition  of 
the  Boston  church  in  Wheelwright's  behalf  —  some- 
thing less  than  respectful,  though,  and  backing  in 
substance  his  offensive  positions  —  was  likewise  un- 
availing ;  but  it  was  filed  for  future  reference,  and  the 
petitioners  would  hear  of  it  again. 

Sitting  in  Boston  was  now,  for  the  General  Court, 
a  good  deal  like  sitting  in  a  hornet's  nest.  Before 
adjournment  a  motion  was  made  to  hold  the  next 
session  —  annual  Court  of  Elections  —  at  Newtown. 
Governor  Vane  refused  to  put  the  motion.  Deputy- 
Governor  Winthrop  feeling,  as  a  Boston  man,  a 
'  clelicacy  about  doing  it,  Endicott  put  it,  and  it  was 
carried.  The  meeting  at  Newtown  (May,  1637)  was 
a  battle.  It  was  held  in  the  open  air.  Both  parties 
were  out  in  strength  and  in  hot  blood.  Vane  took 
the  chair  and  began  to  read  a  petition  sent  in  from 
Boston,  vaguely  described  in  the  Journal  as  "  being 
about  pretence  of  liberty,  etc."  Winthrop  interrupted 
him  as  out  of  order,  and,  since  the  election  had  pre- 


156  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

cedence  of  all  other  business,  moved  that  it  be  pro- 
ceeded to  at  once.  An  immense  commotion  and 
uproar  ensued,  in  which  the  bystanders  joined.  The 
question  was,  Shall  the  election  be  the  first  thing? 
Elder  Wilson  in  his  zeal  "  gat  up  on  the  bough  of  a 
tree,"  and  made  thence  a  speech  to  the  crowd  in  the 
affirmative,  arguing  that  the  point  was  settled  by  the 
charter.  The  contention  was  long,  and  threatened 
at  times  to  assume  a  physical  character.  The  day 
was  passing ;  the  cry  of  "  Election  !  Election  !  "  grew 
clamorous.  Finally  Winthrop,  since  Vane  would  not, 
called  for  a  vote.  It  was  Yes,  by  a  large  majority. 
Still  Vane  balked.  "  Then,"  said  Winthrop,  "  we  will 
go  on  without  you  ! "  The  result  was  a  matter  of 
course  :  the  Antinomians  went  to  the  wall ;  Winthrop 
was  governor  again,  with  Dudley  for  his  deputy, — 
the  old  firm. 

While  throughout  the  Controversy,  Winthrop,  as 
we  say,  stood  with  "the  country"  against  Boston, 
the  circumstance  that  the  Antinomians  were  his 
fellow-townsmen  operated,  together  with  his  native 
disposition,  to  preserve  him  in  general  from  that 
intemperance  of  passion  into  which  both  parties  were 
betrayed,  —  constituted  him  a  mediating  element  but 
for  presence  of  which,  the  look  is,  Massachusetts 
would  have  gone  to  wreck ;  made  him  also  chief 
healer  of  the  wounds  of  the  conflict  afterward. 

There  is  evidence  that  it  was  to  him  the  season  of 
a  great  chastening  of  spirit,  and  incidentally  of  the 
most  searching  and  solemn  self-inquest.  It  was  while 
the  strife  of  tongues  was  loud  around  him  that,  in 


"CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE"    WRITTEN.    157 

hours  of  privacy,  he  wrote  that  "Christian  Expe- 
rience "  spoken  of  in  an  earlier  chapter,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  come  about  in  this  wise :  Late  in 
1636  he  had  drawn  forth  from  its  long  repose  his 
old  religious  diary,  the  "  Experiencia,"  and  made  an 
entry  in  it,  —  the  first  since  he  left  Groton  Manor. 
What  suggested  it  the  entry  itself  explains :  "  Upon 
some  differences  in  or.  Churche  about  the  waye  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  worke  of  Justif :  myselfe 
dissentinge  from  the  reste  of  the  brethren,  I  had 
occasion  to  examine  mine  owne  estate,"  —  which  ex- 
amination, he  goes  on  to  say,  had  lasted  some  days 
with  much  perturbation,  but  had  issued  in  a  new 
peace  with  Heaven. 

Recording  this  seems  to  have  led  him  into  wider 
reflections,  and  finally  to  have  moved  him  to  indite 
a  statement  at  large  of  the  way  of  God  with  his  soul. 
So  he  sat  down  with  his  pen,  and  looking  back 
reviewed,  in  the  subdued  light  of  memory,  the  spir- 
itual changes  and  events  of  all  his  bygone  years, — 
unto  a  conclusion  bearing  on  present  circumstances; 
for  he  closes  with  saying, — 

"The  Doctrine  of  free  justification,  lately  taught  here, 
took  me  in  as  drowsy  a  condition,  as  I  had  been  in  (to  my 
remembrance)  these  twenty  years,  &  brought  me  as  low 
(in  my  own  apprehension)  as  if  the  whole  work  had  been 
to  begin  anew.  But  when  the  voice  of  Peace  came,  I 
knew  it  to  be  the  same  that  I  had  been  acquainted  with 
before,  though  it  did  not  speak  so  loud  nor  in  that 
measure  of  joy  that  I  had  felt  sometimes.  Only  this  I 
found,  that  I  had  defiled  the  white  garments  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  .  .  . 


158  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

"The  Lord  Jesus  who  (of  his  own  free  grace)  hath 
washed  my  soul  in  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant, 
wash  away  all  those  spots  also  in  his  good  time. 

"Amen,  even  so  doe,  Lord  Jesus." 

The  date  subscribed  with  his  name,  "The  12th  of 
the  1  ith  month  1636,"  —  N.S.Jan.  22,  1637 — is,  as 
he  notes,  that  of  his  fiftieth  birthday. 

This  paper  is  justly  to  be  held  the  most  signifi- 
cant —  as  it  is  the  most  pleasing  —  personal  memo- 
rial of  the  Antinomian  Controversy  as  concerns  John 
Winthrop.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  reflects 
the  prevailing  attitude  of  his  mind  in  relation  to  it. 


WINTHRQP  AT  THE  HELM  AGAIN.       159 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WINTHROP  AT  THE   HELM  AGAIN. 
(1637-1638.) 

The  ship  of  state,  when  Winthrop  took  the  helm 
in  1637,  was  labouring  heavily  in  tempestuous  seas, 
with  breakers  not  far  away.  There  was  no  one  of  all 
her  crew  with  calmer  brain  or  steadier  hand  to  pilot 
her  through  the  jeopardy  than  he,  —  none  certainly 
to  whom  ship  and  freight  were  more  precious,  —  but 
it  was  a  task  of  extreme  difficulty,  nor  soon  to  be 
accomplished. 

Vane,  in  the  election  just  described,  had  been  re- 
tired not  only  from  the  first  place,  but  from  office 
altogether,  as  had  been  likewise  the  Boston  Assistants 
Coddington  and  Dummer.  Each  and  all,  they  were 
"returned  to  the  condition  of  private  men,"  —  a 
thing  which  the  ministers  had  once  disallowed,  but 
had  lately,  we  may  assume,  come  to  view  in  a  new 
light;  Master  Cotton's  great  scriptural  demonstration 
on  the  subject  now  appearing  less  luminous  than  for- 
merly. Boston  was  full  of  wrath.  A  town- meeting 
next  day  after  the  election  sent  Vane  and  Coddington 
back  to  the  General  Court  as  deputies.  On  a  tech- 
nicality —  slight  defect  of  legal  warning  of  said  town- 


l6o*  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

meeting ;  two  freemen  not  notified  of  it  —  the  Court 
refused  to  seat  them,  and  they  had  to  be  elected  over 
again.  In  contrast  with  Winthrop  in  like  circum- 
stances, Vane  took  his  reverse  with  bad  grace.  He 
belied  his  gentle  breeding  by  treating  his  successor 
with  marked  discourtesy.  When  the  latter  in  person 
invited  him  to  sit  with  the  magistrates  in  the  meeting- 
house at  public  worship,  he  petulantly  declined. 
When  Winthrop  again  invited  him  with  others  to 
meet  at  dinner  Lord  Leigh,  the  Earl  of  Marlborough's 
son  (visiting  the  colony  on  his  travels),  he  not  only 
would  not  come,  —  impudently  pleading  conscientious 
scruples,  —  but  carried  off  Lord  Leigh,  who  was  a 
boy  in  his  teens,  to  dinner  elsewhere ;  acting  like  a 
boy  himself.  He  also  —  nothing  amiss  but  for  the 
spice  of  anger  in  it  —  disputed  with  the  governor  the 
legality  of  an  order  of  the  General  Court  virtually 
prohibiting  the  residence  of  new-comers  in  the  colony 
without  official  leave  first  obtained,  —  an  order  de- 
signed to  prevent  the  importation  of  recruits  to  the 
Antinomian  party.  In  his  attack  upon  it  —  it  was  an 
affair  of  pamphlets  —  Vane  incidentally  lays  down,  in 
impressive  style,  those  fundamentals  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious freedom,  his  intrepid  vindication  of  which  on  a 
larger  arena  in  days  to  come  would  win  him  immortal 
renown,  u^inthrop,  in  his  defence  of  it,  develops 
more  articulately  and  amply  than  on  any  other  occa- 
sion that  interpretation  of  the  charter  by  which  it 
invests  Massachusetts  with  the  authority  of  self-gov- 
ernment") His  exposition  displays  his  intellectual 
characteristics,  and  is  a  good  example  of  his  work 


EXIT  VANE.  161 

in  that  kind.  The  whole  discussion,  able  and  volu- 
minous on  both  sides,  and  exceedingly  interesting, 
may  be  read  in  Hutchinson's  "  Collection  of  Original 
Papers." 

Vane  lingered  not  much  longer  at  the  Bay.  He 
sailed  for  England  in  August,  and  the  juvenile  Lord 
Leigh  with  him,  amid  the  farewells  of  his  Boston 
friends,  and  with  a  parting  artillery  salute  ordered  by 
Winthrop,  excused  by  pressure  of  official  duties  from 
being  himself  on  hand  to  see  him  off. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  that  he  went  home  to 
cherish  no  resentment  toward  the  community  in 
which  he  had  fared  so  unhappily,  or  toward  the 
persons  with  whom  he  had  come  most  sharply  into 
collision.  Years  after,  Winthrop  paid  him  the  tribute 
of  saying  that  "  though  he  might  have  taken  occa- 
sion against  us  for  some  dishonour  which  he  appre- 
hended to  have  been  unjustly  put  upon  him  here,  yet 
...  he  showed  himself  a  true  friend  to  New  England, 
and  a  man  of  noble  and  generous  mind." 

Outside  Boston,  the  new  accession  of  Winthrop 
to  the  chief  magistracy  was  the  subject  of  ardent 
congratulation.  Going  soon  after  the  election  to 
Lynn,  Salem,  and  Ipswich,  the  exulting  citizens  es- 
corted him  from  town  to  town.  But  Boston  was  in 
another  temper,  and  he  was  made  to  feel  it.  "  Sad 
Boston,"  Margaret  called  it  in  a  letter  to  him  at  New- 
town, —  letter  beginning  "  Dear  in  My  Thoughts."  It 
had  been  an  unseemly  incident  of  election-day  that 
the  four  sergeants  composing  the  governor's  guard 
of  honour,  "being   all  Boston  men  .  .  .  laid  down 

ii 


1 62  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

their  halberds  and  went  home."  "  The  country," 
learning  of  this,  would  have  provided  a  detail  for 
the  duty  from  the  near  towns.  Boston,  for  shame, 
then  offering  —  but  churlishly  —  to  furnish  a  guard, 
Winthrop  begged  to  be  excused;  some  of  his  own 
servants  would  answer.  But  he  reminded  his 
neighbours  of  their  error  in  forgetting  that  "the 
place  drowns  the  person  be  he  honourable  or 
base." 

Though  the  Antinomian  Controversy  had  its  crisis 
in  the  battle  at  Newtown,  the  end  was  not  yet. 
The  divided  state  of  the  colony  wrought  by  it  was 
a  condition  of  immediate  danger  not  to  be  ignored. 
Indian  hostilities  were  at  the  point  of  outburst,  and 
faction  was  military  weakness.  Moreover,  there  was 
well-grounded  solicitude  regarding  the  effect  the 
schism  would  produce  abroad,  —  its  effect,  for  one 
thing,  on  emigration.  Anxious  pains  had  been  taken 
to  soften  the  report  of  it.  "Tell  our  countrymen," 
said  Cotton,  early  in  1637,  to  some  who  were  going 
to  England,  "  that  all  the  strife  amongst  us  is  about 
magnifying  the  grace  of  God,  .  .  .  and  that  if  there 
are  any  among  them  that  would  strive  for  grace  they 
should  come  hither." 

But  the  colony  had  visibly  before  it  evidence  of 
the  repelling  operation  of  its  domestic  broil.  In  the 
summer  of  1637,  just  after  the  election,  two  ship- 
loads of  emigrants,  led  by  the  Rev.  John  Davenport 
and  Theophilus  Eaton,  landed  at  Boston.  Davenport 
was  an  intimate  of  Cotton's,  and  had  been  by  him 
induced  to  come  over.     Eaton  had  been  a  member 


FRUITS  OF  FACTION.  163 

and  an  Assistant  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company 
in  England,  and  was  a  gentleman  of  ample  estate.  It 
was  a  reinforcement  to  repair  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent the  loss  of  the  Connecticut  secession,  the  wound 
of  which  was  still  fresh.  Not  long,  however,  after 
their  arrival  they  began  looking  for  a  place  of  outside 
settlement;  and  the  following  spring  passed  on  to 
Quinnipiack,  on  Long  Island  Sound,  and  founded  the 
New  Haven  Colony.  Whether  they  would  in  any 
case  have  remained  at  the  Bay  is  perhaps  uncertain  ; 
but  it  had  been  expected  that  they  would  remain, 
and  it  was  felt  at  the  time  that  the  state  of  things 
they  found  there  had  to  do  with  determining  their 
course.  Winthrop  smooths  over  their  departure  — 
of  which  at  a  later  period  he  confesses  he  was  "  im- 
patient" —  in  terms  in  which  they  doubtless  smoothed 
it  over  to  him  j  attributing  it  to  the  attraction  of 
Quinnipiack,  and  to  their  wish  to  be  out  of  the  way 
of  a  "general  governor." 

Then,  again,  the  representations  —  such,  for  in- 
stance, as  Vane  might  make  —  of  the  prevailing  dis- 
order as  bordering  on  anarchy,  would  afford  a  new 
pretext  of  assault  on  the  charter.  The  charter  ques- 
tion, in  one  shape  or  another,  was  apt  to  be  involved 
in  all  colony  difficulties.  It  was  so  now.  Young 
Lord  Leigh,  while  in  Boston,  was  told  by  some  gos- 
sip of  a  certain  Eure  having  declared  "that  if  the 
king  did  send  any  authority  hither  against  our  patent 
he  would  be  the  first  should  resist  him."  At  which 
treasonable  speech  the  boy  nobleman  was  so  horrified 
that  he  brought  the  matter  to  the  attention  of  the 


1 64  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

governor,  naming  his  informant.  Winthrop,  much 
less  scandalized,  felt  it  expedient  under  the  circum- 
stances that  some  notice  should  be  taken  of  it.  On 
interrogation  of  Eure  by  the  Court,  it  came  out  that 
in  his  strong  talk  he  had  not  named  the  king  at  all, 
but  had  said  that  "if  there  came  any  authority 
out  of  England  contrary  to  the  patent  he  would 
withstand  it ; "  which  the  governor  pointed  out  to 
the  Court,  and  to  his  callow  lordship,  and  to  the  no 
doubt  astonished  Eure,  was  a  quite  fundamentally 
different  thing,  —  in  fact,  the  opposite  thing.  Rightly 
understood,  Eure  was  a  model  of  British  loyalty  ;  for 
our  patent,  his  excellency  expounded,  is  of  royal  ori- 
gin, and  "  it  is  lawful  to  resist  any  authority  which  was 
to  overthrow  the  lawful  authority  of  the  king's  grant," 
—  an  argument  very  like  one  that  would  be  heard  on 
the  same  soil  some  generations  later,  about  the  time 
of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

The  discussion  between  Winthrop  and  Vane  that 
has  been  referred  to,  about  the  Court's  order  rela- 
tive to  permission  of  residence,  also  rubbed  against 
the  subject  of  the  charter.  Vane  in  his  reasoning 
continually  assumed  the  king's  right  of  control  over 
the  colony ;  showing  that  he  was  not  grounded  in  the 
true  doctrine.  Lawyer  Winthrop  had  to  tread  very 
gently,  and  use  his  nicest  skill,  in  repudiating  the 
false  premise  without  doing  it  too  explicitly. 

Nor  was  the  apprehension  of  trouble  from  abroad 
by  reason  of  the  controversy  merely  speculative. 
Positive  signs  of  such  a  consequence  developed.  In 
June,  1637,  —  so  Winthrop  reports,  —  word  was  re- 


>f\B  R  A  *  ^S, 

tf  Of TH£  A 

(   UNIVERSITY  J 

FRUITS  OFltfCr/qMc         sj   165 

ceived  that  "  on  pretence  there  was  no  lawful  author- 
ity in  force  here,"  the  Lords  Commissioners  had 
appointed  "  divers  of  the  magistrates  to  take  charge 
of  the  government."  The  scheme  alluded  to,  what- 
ever it  was,  blew  over,  for  we  hear  no  more  of  it ;  but 
it  meant  that  the  news  in  England  was  that  things 
were  in  a  bad  way  in  Massachusetts. 

Altogether  with  interests  of  the  most  vital  moment 
demanding,  depending  on,  domestic  harmony,  some- 
thing —  and  whatever  was  needful  —  must  be  done  to 
restore  it.  No  prospect  appeared  that  it  would  come 
of  itself.  When,  in  the  summer  of  1637,  volunteers 
were  wanted  for  the  Pequot  War,  which  had  surprised 
the  colony  in  the  midst  of  its  household  fight,  the 
Boston  Antinomians,  because  the  chaplain  of  the  force 
to  be  raised  would  be  a  covenant-of-works  minister, 
—  their  own  Elder  Wilson,  —  would  not  enlist.  The 
reprobations  and  admonitions  of  the  protracted  synod 
already  mentioned  1  produced  no  effect. 

The  government  resolved  to  act.     The  following 
November  the  General  Court,  "  finding  upon  consul- 
tation that  two  so  opposite  parties  could  not  contain 
in  the  same  body  without  apparent  hazard  of  ruin  to 
the  whole,  agreed  to  send  away  some  of  the  principal." 
To  John  Wheelwright's  conviction  of  nine  months  be- 
fore was  now  added  the  hitherto  deferred   sentence. 
\jle   was   disfranchised  and  banished ;  filling  up  the 
measure  of  his  offence  by  an  appeal  to  the  king,  — 
which  the  Court  disposed  of  in  short  order.     Mrs. 
Hutchinson  was  put  on  trial.     She  defended  herself 
1  Page  150. 


1 66  JOHN  WINTIIROP. 

like  a  woman  of  spirit.  It  was  give  and  take  between 
her  and  her  judges,  upon  whom  and  their  posterity- 
she,  by  revelation,  denounced  bitter  woes.  She  was 
banished,  —  the  sentence  not  to  be  executed,  however, 
till  spring.  The  signers,  or  justifiers,  of  the  Wheelwright 
petition  before  spoken  of,  were  next  taken  in  hand. 
Several,  including  two  of  the  Boston  deputies,  were  de- 
posed from  office  and  disfranchised ;  some  fined,  and 
one  banished.  The  Court  adjourned  a  fortnight,  to 
give  persons  concerned  in  the  line  of  procedure 
now  inaugurated  time  for  meditation,  and  then  re- 
sumed the  work.  Other  official  heads  fell,  Cap- 
tain UnderhilPs  for  one ;  several  citizens  more  were 
disfranchised ;  fifty-eight  Bostonians,  with  a  few 
from  other  towns,  were  required  to  deliver  up  all 
arms  in  their  possession ;  and  the  colony  ammunition 
stored  in  Boston  was  ordered  to  be  removed  else- 
where. 

This  was  a  serious  turn  of  affairs.  The  Wheel- 
wright petitioners  —  there  had  been  sixty  of  them  — 
betook  themselves  to  petitioning  on  their  own  ac- 
count ;  about  a  third  of  them  seeking,  and  for  their 
penitence  obtaining,  forgiveness  of  the  Court.  "  They 
did  ingeniously  acknowledge,"  says  Winthrop,  "  how 
they  had  been  deceived  and  misled  .  .  .  and  blessed 
God  that  had  so  timely  discovered  their  error  and 
danger  to  them."  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  yet  to 
undergo  her  ecclesiastical  trial  by  the  Boston  church. 
It  took  place  in  March,  1638,  with  incidents  char- 
acteristic of  such  occasions  everywhere  in  those  days, 
but  to  modern  views  forbidding ;  and  resulted  in  her 


THE  STRONG  HAND.  167 

excommunication.  Poor  lady  !  she  had  lost  her  army 
of  friends.  There  were  very  few  to  stand  by  her. 
The  church  did,  however,  make  a  rally  in  the  form 
of  endeavouring  to  bring  the  governor  to  book  for  his 
share  in  causing  the  publication  in  England  —  by 
which  they  felt  injured  —  of  all  the  Court  had  done 
to  the  Antinomians.  But  nothing  came  of  it  except 
an  elaborate  argument  from  Winthrop  to  prove  that  a 
magistrate  was  not  obnoxious  to  church  discipline  for 
acts  performed  in  his  judicial  capacity. 

The  purgation  of  the  Bay  —  there  were,  it  is  ob- 
servable, no  confiscations,  nor,  beyond  detentions  inci- 
dent to  trial,  imprisonments — was  not  a  numerous  one. 
Four  only  were  sent  away ;  though  eleven  more  wiro 
were  advised  that  their  absence  was  desirable,  and 
about  forty  sympathizers  who  chose  to  leave  of  them- 
selves, departed  in  their  company,  —  most  of  whom 
subsequently  returned,  satisfied  upon  reflection  to  live 
in  Massachusetts.  Wheelwright  and  his  adherents 
went  to  New  Hampshire  ;  but  he  in  *clue  time  came 
back,  by  permission  of  the  Court.  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
and  her  party  of  refugees  turned  southward,  and  set- 
tled on  the  island  of  Narragansett  Bay  whence  Rhode 
Island  took  its  name.  But  there  new  illuminations 
were  vouchsafed  her  which  her  little  community  — 
of  nineteen  persons  to  begin  with  —  could  not  pos- 
sibly accommodate,  and  by  which  it  was  soon  forced 
apart.  She  "could  not,"  says  Palfrey,  " willingly  be 
quiet,  or  be  second,  anywhere."  Eventually,  with  a 
following,  she  migrated  westward,  and  took  up  her 
abode  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  near  the  present 
Astoria,  —  then  Dutch  country,  —  where,  in  1643,  sne> 


1 68  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

and  all  but  one  of  her  household  with  her,  lamentably 
perished  in  an  Indian  massacre. 

To  claim  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  associates 
in  banishment  were  a  sacrifice  to  religious  bigotry  is 
no  more  tenable  than  a  similar  claim  in  the  case  of 
Roger  Williams.  The  idea  of  religious  liberty  indeed, 
in  the  nineteenth  century  sense,  then  no  more  ob- 
tained in  Massachusetts  than  it  did  in  England.  Of 
the  duty  and  right  of  purifying  the  state  of  aggres- 
sive dissent  to  its  established  religion  by  exclusion, 
there  was  no  doubt  whatsoever.  From  time  to  time 
persons  were  banished  for  their  opinions  when  offen- 
sively published,  —  like  Hugh  Bewett,  for  example, 
in  1640,  "for  holding  publicly  and  maintaining  that 
he  was  free  from  original  sin,  and  from  actual  also  for 
half  a  year  before." 

There  are  preserved  in  Mather's  u  Magnalia  "  some 
verses  composed  by  Thomas  Dudley  in  his  old  age, 
taking  leave  of  life ;  an  extract  from  which  illustrates 
the  sentiment  of  that  age  on  the  subject  of  toleration  : 

"  Farewel  dear  wife,  children  and  friends, 
Hate  heresie,  make  blessed  ends. 
Bear  poverty,  live  with  good  men ; 
So  shall  we  live  with  joy  agen. 
Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O're  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch. 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 
To  poison  all  with  heresie  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left,  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  Epitaph's,  I  dy'd  no  libertine." 

The  birth  of  freedom  at  that  point  was  slow.  Not 
even  the  plainest  proofs  of  its  policy  could  hasten  it 
before  its  time.     When,  twenty  years  after  the  Anti- 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR.  169 

nomian  Controversy,  the  banished  Quakers,  wearying 
of  Rhode  Island  because  they  were  there  let  alone,  re- 
turned to  Massachusetts,  where  they  could  be  sure  of 
not  being  let  alone,  —  persecution  attracting  them  as 
sugar  attracts  flies,  —  and  so  incurred  the  martyrdom 
they  coveted,  it  did  not  occur  to  the  tormented 
colony,  wanting  nothing  but  to  be  rid  of  them,  that, 
did  it  but  lay  no  hand  on  them,  it  likewise  would  be 
too  insipid  a  place  of  sojourn  for  them  to  endure. 

But  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  not  persecuted.  It  is 
quite  true  her  errors  were  reckoned  monstrous,  dam- 
nable, heaven-defying,  inviting  judgment  upon  the 
community  to  which  she  belonged.  Yet  not  for  her 
opinions  was  she  cast  out.  A  saying  about  her  of 
early  date  sums  up  the  whole  story  :  "  She  was  like 
Roger  Williams,  or  worse."  By  her  means  Massa- 
chusetts was  brought  to  the  edge  of  social  and  politi- 
cal disruption,  and,  beset  by  gravest  perils  from 
without,  was  crippled  in  the  power  of  self-defence, 
small  at  best.  On  the  principle  affirmed  by  Oliver 
Cromwell,  that  "  without  being,  well-being  is  not  pos- 
sible," her  expulsion  was  a  necessity. 

The  Pequot  War,  to  which  reference  has  been 
made  as  coincident  at  a  certain  stage  with  the  Anti- 
nomian  imbroglio,  belongs  to  Connecticut  rather  than 
to  Massachusetts  history ;  though  Massachusetts  took 
part  in  it,  and  was  immensely  concerned  in  its  issue. 
It  was  already  in  progress  when  Winthrop's  election 
(May,  1637)  took  place.  Endicott's  bloody  reprisal 
of  the  summer  before,  instead  of  cowing  the  spirit 


170  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

of  the  Indians,  had  kindled  it  into  a  blaze  of  wrath, 
from  which  Hooker's  colony  just  then  planting  on 
the  Connecticut  immediately  began  to  suffer.  That 
settlement  was  in  a  frightfully  exposed  position.  Iso- 
lated, with  no  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms,  it  lay  within  reach  of  as 
many  as  five  thousand  fighting  barbarians ;  one  thou- 
sand of  them,  two  days'  march  to  the  eastward,  Pe- 
quots,  most  warlike  of  all. 

We  estimate  the  situation  from  the  white  man's 
side.  Of  course  there  was  a  red  man's  point  of  view 
too.  He  also  was  hemmed  in.  He  had  a  history 
parallel  to  that  we  are  recounting,  —  an  epic  of  pro- 
foundest  pathos,  —  though  he  has  no  historian. 
•  During  the  autumn  of  1636,  as  became  known 
throughout  the  country,  the  Pequots  addressed  over- 
tures to  the  powerful  Narragansetts  —  their  neigh- 
bours, but  their  hereditary  foes  —  to  make  common 
cause  with  them  in  the  enterprise  of  destroying  the 
English  entirely  out  of  the  land;  and  but  for  the 
interposition  of  Roger  Williams  they  were  likely  to 
have  succeeded,  —  to  the  woe,  possibly  to  the  doom, 
of  New  England.  Williams,  who  in  his  banishment 
had  made  friends  with  the  Narragansett  chiefs,  now, 
at  extreme  hazard  of  his  life,  repaired  to  them  in  per- 
son, and  by  dint  of  utmost  endeavours  induced  them, 
instead  of  joining  the  Pequots,  to  send  an  embassy  to 
Boston  to  enter  into  treaty  alliance  with  Massachu- 
setts against  them.  Winthrop's  detailed  account  of 
the  negotiation,  —  it  was  conducted  with  no  little 
state,  —  and  his  transcription  of  the  nine  articles  of 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR.  171 

the  compact  entered  into,  attest  the  deep  concern 
with  which  the  threatened  coalition  had  been  viewed. 

The  Pequots,  left  to  carry  on  the  crusade  alone, 
began  operations  in  the  spring  of  1637,  with  murders 
on  the  Connecticut,  appalling  in  their  incidents  as 
Indian  murders  are  wont  to  be.  The  people  there  — 
the  black  danger  closing  round  them,  and  their  destruc- 
tion apparently  imminent  —  cried  to  Massachusetts 
and  to  Plymouth  for  help,  themselves  sternly  gird- 
ing on  the  sword.  The  Massachusetts  General  Court 
responded  by  a  levy  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  — 
the  Boston  quota,  for  Antinomian  reasons,  as  before 
stated,  hard  to  get,  —  who  were  despatched  by  water 
to  the  seat  of  the  impending  war.  Vane  had,  how- 
ever, previously  sent  forward  to  Saybrook  a  vanguard 
of  twenty  with  Captain  Underhill,  —  happily  so  spared 
the  dispiriting  weight  on  his  valour  of  the  covenant- 
of- works  chaplain,  —  to  report  to  Capt.  John  Mason, 
coming  down  the  river  in  command  of  the  Connecti- 
cut column.  This  detachment,  as  it  turned  out,  was 
the  only  Massachusetts  force  that  participated  in  the 
memorable  "  divine  slaughter  " —  as  good  elder  Thomas 
Shepard  of  Cambridge  afterward  called  it  —  that  was 
the  decisive  action  of  the  campaign.  Such  another 
grim  tragedy  it  was  as  those  which  in  the  same  days 
were  marking  the  track  of  Tilly  and  Wallenstein  in 
the  Palatinate.     It  annihilated  the  Pequot  tribe. 

Comparing,  in  point  of  exposure  to  Indian  perils, 
the  situation  of  the  colonists  with  that  of  the  mod- 
ern settlers  of  our  western  frontier,  it  is  to  be  con- 
sidered that   the   latter  have  a  great  nation  behind 


172  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

them ;  while  the  former,  in  their  few  scattered  villages 
on  the  ocean's  edge,  were  alone,  with  no  succours  to 
invoke,  and  no  retreat  possible. 

The  extermination  of  the  Pequots  was  dictated  by 
the  imperious  instinct  of  self-preservation.  It  ac- 
complished its  object.  For  a  whole  generation  there- 
after there  was  no  formidable  outbreak  of  savage 
violence  against  the  whites  of  New  England.  A  year 
later  there  appeared  in  Boston  a  delegation  of  Mohe- 
gans-  from  Connecticut,  headed  by  their  chief  Uncas, 
on  the  anxious  mission  of  explaining  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  had  allowed  a  few  Pequot 
fugitives  to  live  among  them. 

Winthrop  alwa^sjoJ)Sj^^^ 

Trareg[^SS3^yery  now  and  then  in  his 

comments  ^gp^^b^Hjr!-' -TH ■  he  notes  with  implied 
"aSmiration  the  "very  safe  and  wary  conditions"  on 
which  the  Narragansett  Canonicus  at  the  time  of  the 
Oldham  murder  engaged  to  assist  in  its  punishment. 
One  can  almost  hear  the  laugh  with  which  in  an- 
other place  he  tells  how  an  honest  plain  settler, 
having  been  asked  by  a  native  what  were  the  first 
principles  of  a  commonwealth,  and  "  being  far  short 
in  the  knowledge  of  such  matters,  yet  ashamed  that 
an  Indian  should  find  an  Englishman  ignorant  of 
anything,"  replied,  after  taking  time  to  think,  that 
the  first  principles  of  a  commonwealth  were  salt,  iron, 
and  ships.  "  Alas,  saith  the  Indian,  then  I  fear  we 
shall  never  be  a  commonwealth." 

On  occasion  of  the  visit  from  the  Mohegans  above 
referred  to,  he  was  impressed  with  the  eloquence  of 


THE  PEQUOT  WAR.  173 

Uncas,  so  much  so  that  he  preserves  a  passage  of  it 
as  follows  :  — 

"  This  heart  (laying  his  hand  upon  his  breast)  is  not 
mine,  but  yours;  I  have  no  men;  they  are  all  yours; 
command  me  any  difficult  thing,  I  will  do  it;  I  will  not 
believe  any  Indians'  words  against  the  English;  if  any 
man  shall  kill  an  Englishman,  I  will  put  him  to  death, 
were  he  never  so  dear  to  me." 

The  "  divine  slaughter  "  was,  indeed,  efficacious. 


174  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FRESH  DANGER  FROM  ABROAD. 
(1638-164O.) 

When  the  Court  of  Elections  of  1638  came  round, 
Winthrop  was  continued  governor,  as  was  also  Dudley 
deputy.  This  was  breaking  the  rule  of  late  followed, 
but  the  freemen  felt  that  it  was  no  time  now  to  pass 
by  the  fittest  men.  The  Antinomians  and  the  Pe- 
quots  were  subdued,  but  in  both  cases  there  were  re- 
mainders that  rendered  a  change  of  executive  highly 
impolitic. 

At  this  Court  the  grateful  country  voted  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  deputy  a  liberal  donation  of  land.  — 
land  lying  above  Concord  this  was,  in  contiguous 
sections  ;  the  division  boulders  named  the  Two  Broth- 
ers in  pleasing  circumstances  before  related.1 

The  very  day  of  his  election  to  this  his  sixth  term, 
Winthrop  was  prostrated  by  a  fever,  the  consequence 
probably  of  the  strain  he  had  been  under,  which 
brought  him  to  death's  door. 

One  happy  result  of  it,  we  must  suppose,  was  the 
softening  toward  him,  while  he  lay  so  sick  and  his  re- 
covery in  doubt,  of  many  hearts  that  the  controversy 

1  Page  103. 


SEVERE  ILLNESS.  175 

had  estranged.  At  all  events,  he  was  soon  reinstated 
in  the  good  graces  of  his  Boston  neighbours,  —  the 
residual  penalties  of  whose  late  insubordination  the 
government,  at  the  first  signs  of  their  return  to  a 
better  mind,  was  prompt  to  remit.  While  "  firm  and 
resolute  in  the  execution  of  his  office,"  says  Hutchin- 
son, "  and  steady  to  his  principles,  yet  in  private  life 
he  behaved  with  much  moderation.  He  was  obliging 
and  condescending  to  all,  and  by  this  means  in  a 
short  time  recovered  their  affections  and  was  in 
greater  esteem  than  ever." 

Cotton  Mather  tells  a  story  of  him  —  without  date, 
but  the  fact  of  a  wood- famine  in  Boston  in  the  winter 
of  1637-38  assigns  it  to  this  period  —  that,  as  an  illus- 
tration of  his  ways,  gives  insight  of  the  reasons  why 
the  eclipses  of  his  popularity  were  at  all  times  brief. 

"  In  an  hard  &  long  winter,  when  wood  was  very  scarce 
at  Boston,  a  man  gave  him  private  information,  that  a 
needy  person  in  the  neighbourhood  stole  wood  sometimes 
from  his  pile  ;  whereupon  the  governour  in  a  seeming  an- 
ger did  reply,  '  Does  he  so  ?  I  '11  take  a  course  with  him  ; 
go,  call  that  man  to  me,  I  '11  warrant  you  I  '11  cure  him 
of  stealing.'  When  the  man  came,  the  governour  con- 
sidering that  if  he  had  stolen,  it  was  more  out  of  neces- 
sity than  disposition,  said  unto  him,  '  Friend,  it  is  a  severe 
winter,  &  I  doubt  you  are  but  meanly  provided  for  wood; 
wherefore  I  would  have  you  supply  yourself  at  my  wood- 
pile till  this  cold  season  be  over.'  And  he  then  merrily 
asked  his  friends,  '  Whether  he  had  not  effectually  cured 
this  man  of  stealing  his  wood  ?  '" 

But  the  governor's  public  duties  during  this  term, 
though  less  painful  than  those  of  the  preceding,  were 


176  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

onerous.  "  There  came  over  this  summer,"  as  he 
records  with  exultation,  "twenty  ships  and  at  least 
three  thousand  persons,  so  that  they  were  forced  to 
look  out  new  plantations."  This  made  work  for  the 
governor,  but  it  was  work  in  which  his  soul  delighted. 

Such  an  accession  just  now  was  in  every  way  a 
boon.  It  was  a  large  increase  of  strength,  and  it  di- 
verted the  thoughts  of  the  people  from  sore  subjects. 
There  was  relief,  too,  in  the  proof  it  afforded  that,  bad 
as  the  times  were  in  New  England,  they  were  enough 
worse  in  Old  England  still  to  tip  the  scales  in  the 
former's  favour ;  for  which  Winthrop  must  have  been 
almost  ready  to  thank  God. 

Yet  so  bright  a  smile  of  fortune  was  not  without  an 
attendant  frown.  The  departure  of  so  numerous  a 
body  to  reinforce  the  refractory  colony  had  startled 
the  Lords  Commissioners,  who  did  all  they  could  to 
prevent  it,  —  "  the  Archbishops  caused  all  the  ships 
to  be  stayed,"  —  though  without  avail;  commercial 
influences  shaking  off  the  arrest,  to  their  chagrin. 
"For  sure  the  Lord  awed  their  hearts,"  says  the 
governor,  "  and  they  and  others  (who  savoured  not 
religion)  were  amazed  to  see  men  of  all  conditions, 
rich  and  poor,  servants  and  others,  offering  them- 
selves so  readily  for  New  England,  when  for  furnish- 
ing of  other  plantations,  they  were  forced  to  send 
about  their  stalls,  and  when  they  had  gotten  any,  they 
were  forced  to  keep  them  as  prisoners  from  run- 
ning away."  But  the  resolution  was  taken  to  renew 
the  attempt  of  bringing  Massachusetts  under  control. 
Accordingly,  there  arrived  in  Boston,  in  season  to 


FOURTH  ASSAULT  ON  THE   CHARTER.      17 7 

be  laid  before  the  fall  meeting  of  the  General  Court, 
now  sitting  there  again,  a  document  dated  "  White- 
hall, April  4,  1638,"  bristling  with  great  names,  —  Lord 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Lord  Keeper,-  Lord  Treas- 
urer, Lord  Privy  Seal,  Earl  Marshal,  etc.,  a  round 
dozen  of  them,  —  recapitulating  the  facts  relative  to 
the  miscarriage  of  1635,  and  on  the  ground  of  mul- 
tiplied new  complaints  of  "want  of  a  settled  and 
orderly  government "  in  the  Colony,  requiring  now 
the  return  of  the  charter,  and  that  instantly.  No 
trifling  this  time.  Said  letters-patent  are  to  be  sent 
back  by  the  same  ship  that  brings  this  order,  or  "  their 
lordships  will  cause  a  strict  course  to  be  taken  against 
them,  and  will  move  his  Majesty  to  resume  into  his 
hands  the  whole  plantation." 

The  General  Court  without  hesitation  "  agreed  not 
to  send  home  the  patent,"  but  that  "  a  letter  should 
be  written  by  the  governor  in  the  name  of  the  Court 
to  excuse  our  not  sending  of  it."  The  governor,  of 
course,  was  the  man  for  that  business.  Both  at  home 
and  abroad  he  had  come  to  be  specially  associated 
with  the  policy  of  keeping  hold  of  the  charter  at  all 
risks  whatsoever.  In  their  order  the  Lords  Commis- 
sioners had  spoken  of  the  charter  as  "  alleged  ...  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Winthrop,"  and  had  required 
its  surrender  by  "  the  said  Winthrop,  Or  any  other  in 
whose  power  or  control  it  might  be  ;  "  —  but  evidently 
they  judged  he  had  charge  of  it.  They  had  also  di- 
rected their  clerk  in  forwarding  the  order  to  enclose 
with  it  a  letter  "  from  himself  to  Mr.  Winthrop."  All 
which   suggests   that,  his  office  aside,  Winthrop  was 

12 


178  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

regarded  the  individual  head  and  front  of  the  previous 
offending. 

The  governor  wrote  his  letter,  ceremoniously  and 
loyally  phrased,  expressing  our  astonishment  at  this 
strange,  inexplicable  demand  of  your  lordships ;  for 
not  immediately  complying  with  which  we  crave 
your  lordships'  indulgence,  while  we  humbly  ask  to 
know  what  we  have  done  to  provoke  it.  Should  we 
not,  at  least,  have  the  chance  to  plead  to  any  accusa- 
tion lodged  against  us?  As  to  the  Quo  Warranto 
your  lordships  mention,  be  assured  we  were  never 
called  to  make  answer  to  it,  as  we  do  not  doubt  we 
could  have  done  to  your  satisfaction.  But  will 
your  lordships  deign  to  consider  the  great  evils  to  re- 
sult from  the  recall  at  this  time  of  the  charter  we 
had  from  his  Majesty,  through  which  his  dominion  in 
these  parts  has  been  secured?  Not  to  speak  of  the 
loss  inflicted  on  us  who  are  heads  of  the  state  here 
founded,  by  our  being  forced  to  abandon  the  country, 
—  perhaps  your  lordships  have  thought  we  would  stay 
here,  but  you  were  mistaken,  —  that  removal  would 
leave  other  English  plantations  near  by  so  naked  as 
to  force  their  abandonment  by  their  leaders  also. 
Whereupon  the  French  and  the  Dutch,  whom  we  are 
holding  in  check,  would  have  that  free  field  here- 
abouts they  so  eagerly  covet.  Let  your  lordships 
think,  too,  what  effect  the  revocation,  without  cause 
shown,  of  our  patent  will  have  on  other  of  his  Maj- 
esty's subjects  who  may  be  contemplating  enterprises 
like  ours,  which  it  is  obviously  for  the  glory  of  his 
reign  to   promote.     Finally>  should   the   extinguish- 


FOURTH  ASSAULT  ON  THE   CHARTER.     179 

ment  of  our  liberties  oblige  our  responsible  and  rul- 
ing class,  the  competent  element  of  our  community, 
comprising  our  men  of  wisdom  and  estate,  as  a  body 
to  withdraw,  will  not  the  common  people  that  are 
left,  seeing  themselves  cast  off  by  his  Majesty,  on 
their  part  cast  off  that  allegiance  hitherto  so  scrupu- 
lously taught  them  by  our  word  and  example,  and  set 
up  some  government  of  their  own,  to  the  sacrifice,  in 
the  event,  of  all  interests  involved?  "Upon  these 
considerations  we  are  bold  to  renew  our  humble  sup- 
plication to  your  lordships,  that  we  may  be  suffered 
to  live  here  in  this  wilderness,  and  that  this  poor 
plantation,  which  hath  found  more  favour  with  God 
than  many  other,  may  not  find  less  favour  from  your 
lordships.  .  .  .  We  do  not  question  your  lordships' 
proceedings,  we  only  desire  to  open  our  griefs  where 
the  remedy  is  to  be  expected.  If  in  any  thing  we 
have  offended  his  Majesty  and  your  lordships,  we 
humbly  prostrate  ourselves  at  the  footstool  of  supreme 
authority."  In  such  garments  did  the  governor, 
pursuant  to  the  policy  of  Avoid  or  Protract,  dress 
the  Won't  Do  It  the  General  Court  instructed  him  to 
send  the  Lords  Commissioners. 

The  answer,  however,  was  not  so  audacious  as  it 
seems.  It  was  well  known  to  the  General  Court  that 
the  crown  was  less  prepared  than  in  1635  t0  enforce 
its  demand.  Winthrop  was  aware  that  the  Scottish 
troubles  "  did  so  take  up  the  king  and  council  that 
they  had  neither  heart  nor  leisure  to  look  after  the 
affairs  of  New  England." 

Still  more  safe  did  they  feel  to  maintain  the  attitude 


180  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

of  disobedience  when  the  next  year  (June,  1639) 
they  had  from  their  lordships  another  communica- 
tion, —  not  so  formally  transmitted,  it  seems,  —  much 
milder  in  tone,  deprecating  the  hostile  construction 
put  upon  their  order,  promising  "  to  continue  our 
liberties,"  yet  renewing  the  previous  command  to 
despatch  the  patent  home  at  once ;  which  they  played 
with  in  this  fashion :  — 

"This  order  being  imparted  to  the  next  general  court, 
some  advised  to  return  answer  to  it.  Others  thought 
fitter  to  make  no  answer  at  all,  because,  being  sent  in  a 
private  letter,  and  not  delivered  by  a  certain  messenger, 
as  the  former  order  was,  they  could  not  proceed  upon  it, 
because  they  (their  lordships,  to  wit :)  could  not  have  any 
proof  that  it  was  delivered  to  the  governour ;  and  order 
was  taken,  that  Mr.  Cradock's  agent,  who  delivered  the 
letter  to  the  governour,  etc.,  should,  in  his  letters  to  his 
master,  make  no  mention  of  the  letters  he  delivered  to 
the  governour,  seeing  his  master  had  not  laid  any  charge 
upon  him  to  that  end." 

The  ship  on  which  Mr.  Cradock's  agent  was  pas- 
senger brought  news  that  when  it  left  England  the 
king  was  marching  into  Scotland  at  the  head  of  an 
army;  wherefrom  Governor  Winthrop  and  his  col- 
leagues inferred  that  they  might  rest  easy  about  the 
charter  for  the  present.  They  were  right.  Avoid  or 
Protract  had  perfectly  served  its  end  the  third  time, 
and  would  do  so  again.  In  Cromwell's  day,  parlia- 
ment would  call  it  into  exercise  by  sending  for  the 
charter,  with  the  professed  view  of  arranging  a  more 
perfect  correspondence  of  the  colony  with  the  home 


SEVENTH  TERM.  18 1 

government.  On  which  occasion  the  colony,  having 
kept  a  year's  silence,  would  reply :  Thank  you,  but 
we  are  very  well  satisfied  with  things  as  they  are  ;  and, 
as  usual,  a  war  would  step  in  —  Dutch  war  then  — 
to  bar  further  proceedings. 

Not  till  forty-nine  years  after,  when  Cromwell's 
day  was  past,  and  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  drawing  to 
a  close,  and  Winthrop  long  at  rest  from  his  labours, 
was  the  patent  of  1629  torn  from  the  hands  of  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  and  then  the  liberties  for  more  than  half 
a  century  nourished  under  its  shelter  had  struck  too 
deeply  into  her  soil  to  be  uprooted. 

The  next  election  (16^  saw  Winthrop  again  re- 
turned governor,  —  the  seventh  time,  and  the  third 
in  immediate  succession.  With  the  momentous  con- 
cern of  the  charter  in  process  of  manipulation,  it 
was  still  not  seasonable  to  install  another  in  the  first 
place. 

Besides,  contrary  to  fears  of  its  stoppage  by  the  use 
that  would  have  been  made  against  the  colony  at 
home  of  its  late  contumacy,  the  stream  of  emigra- 
tion increased  in  volume.  "  Ships  came  to  us  from 
England  and  divers  other  parts,  with  great  store  of 
people  and  provisions  of  all  sorts."  One  of  these 
ships  brought  over  the  colony's  first  printing-press, 
which  was  set  up  in  Cambridge ;  the  printer,  Stephen 
Daye,  direct  lineal  forefather  there,  in  his  art,  of  the 
printers  of  this  book.  The  towns  now  numbered 
twelve,  and  ground  was  broken  for  several  new 
plantations. 


182  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

\J3ut  with  the  pressure  of  the  life  and  death  ques- 
tion somewhat  lifted,  the  old  unsettled  issue  between 
magistrates  and  commons  revivedj  It  emerged  at 
the  May  meeting  of  the  General  Court,  1639,  Win- 
throp's  record  of  which  begins :  "  The  court  of  elec- 
tions was;  at  which  there  was  a  small  eclipse  of 
the  sun."  Whether  he  speaks  literally  or  figuratively 
is  left  a  little  in  doubt,  for  he  proceeds  to  say  that 
the  choice  of  governor  was  not  unanimous ;  explain- 
ing with  frank  simplicity  that  it  was  "  not  out  of  any 
dislike  of  him,  (for  they  all  loved  and  esteemed  him,) 
but  out  of  their  fear  lest  it  might  make  way  for  having 
a  governor  for  life." 

But  that  was  not  all.  Emanuel  Downing,  to  whom 
the  colony  was  beholden  for  important  services  in 
England,  who  had  come  over  the  year  before,  and 
who  was  the  governor's  brother-in-law,  being  nomi- 
nated Assistant  by  the  magistrates,  was  defeated. 
The  commons  also  kicked  vigorously  against  a  prop- 
osition of  the  magistrates  to  reduce  the  number  of 
deputies  from  each  town  to  two,  —  it  had  been  three, 
—  though  in  view  of  the  growing  state  of  the  country 
they  finally  consented  to  it.  A  petition  for  the  repeal 
of  this  change,  with  the  names,  as  he  regrets  to 
see,  of  "learned  and  godly"  elders  in  the  list  of  its 
signatures,  disturbs  the  governor  deeply.  He  doubts 
if  it  is  lawful,  as  putting  dishonour  upon  the  court 
li  against  the  tenor  of  the  fifth  commandment."  It 
was  at  an  adjourned  session  of  this  Court  that  the 
deputies  fell  foul  of  the  Council  for  Life,  and  practi- 
cally disabled  it  in  the  manner  already  described.1 
1  Page  143. 


\Pvt 


DOMESTIC  POLITICS.  183 


iere  is  an  unwonted  tinge  of  sarcasm  in  the 
governor's  closing  comment  on  these  various  doings. 
I  Ic  finds  it  observable  "  how  strictly  the  people  would 
seem  to  stick  to  their  patent,  where  they  think  it 
makes  for  their  advantage,  but  are  content  to  decline 
it,  where  it  will  not  warrant  such  liberties  as  they 
have  taken  up  without  warrant  from  thence,  as  ap- 
pears in  their  strife  for  three  deputies,  etc.,  when  as 
the  patent  allows  them  none  at  all,  but  only  by 
inference,  etc."  The  fact  is,  your  excellency,  —  if 
you  but  saw  it,  —  they  have  only  discovered  that 
stretching  the  charter  is  a  game  that  two  can  play  atj 

The  legislation  of  1639  included  its  share  of  curi- 
osities :  such  as  restraint  upon  "  excessive  wearing  of 
lace  and  other  superfluities;  "  prohibition  of  Thomas 
Lechford  —  the  first  of  what  Carlyle  calls  "  the  attorney 
species  "  who  undertook  to  set  up  business  in  New 
England  —  "  from  pleading  any  man's  cause  .  .  .  unless 
his  own ;  "  but  most  notably  an  order  for  the  abate- 
ment of  intemperance.  Whether  or  not  increase  of 
drunkenness  had  resulted  from  the  extraordinary 
public  excitement  of  the  past  two  or  three  years,  a 
degree  of  it  existed  that  led  the  Court,  for  several 
reasons  assigned,  —  among  them  that  "  it  occasioned 
much  waste  of  wine  and  beer,"  —  to  pass  a  law  abol- 
ishing "  the  abominable  practice  of  drinking  healths  ;  " 
whereby  it  appears  that  life  in  early  New  England 
was  not  altogether  so  funereal  as  some  suppose. 
That  this  was  on  the  governor's  motion  is  as  good  as 
certain.  Perhaps  no  writing  of  his  more  vividly  sug 
gests  hiTTfaihTng'and  his  logical  habit  than  the  fol 


•*»» 


1 84  JOHN  W1NTHR0P 

lowing  memorandum,  found  among  his  papers,  of  the 
argument  he  obviously  used  in  speaking  for  it.  It  is 
curious  to  see  such  an  engine  of  analytical  ratiocina- 
tion brought  to  bear  on  such  a  subject. 

"  (i  )  "  Such  a  law  as  tends  to  the  suppressing  of  a  vain 
custom  (quatenits  it  so  doth)  is  a  wholesome  law.  This 
law  doth  so,  —  ergo.  The  minor  is  proved  thus  :  I.  Every 
empty  and  ineffectual  representation  of  serious  things 
is  a  way  of  vanity.  But  this  custom  is  such :  for  it  is 
intended  to  hold  forth  love  and  wishes  of  health,  which 
are  serious  things,  by  drinking,  which,  neither  in  the  na- 
ture nor  use,  it  is  able  to  effect;  for  it  is  looked  at  as  a 
mere  compliment,  and  is  not  taken  as  an  argument  of 
love,  which  ought  to  be  unfeigned,  —  ergo.  2.  To  em- 
ploy the  creature  out  of  its  natural  use,  without  warrant 
of  authority,  necessity  or  conveniency,  is  a  way  of  vanity. 
But  this  custom  doth  so,  —  ergo. 

"  (2.)  Such  a  law  as  frees  a  man  from  frequent  and 
needless  temptations  to  dissemble  love,  etc.  (quatenns  it 
so  doth)  is  a  wholesome  law.     But  this  doth  so,  —  ergo" 

Winthrop  had  very  great  annoyance  and  vexation 
this  year  (1639),  as  charged  with  the  chief  responsi- 
bility of  looking  after  the  colony's  young  college. 
Established  at  Newtown,  —  for  its  sake  fondly  re- 
christened  Cambridge,  —  and  bearing  now  the  name 
of  its  first  private  benefactor,  John  Harvard,  it  had, 
under  Rev.  Nathaniel  Eaton,  head-master,  matric- 
ulated its  first  undergraduate  class,  "sons  of  gen- 
tlemen and  others  of  best  note  in  the  country;" 
one  of  its  members  the  future  Sir  George  Downing, 
destined  to  act  a  great  part  in  England's  approaching 
Revolution,  —  Downing   Street   in   London   his  me- 


GOVERNOR'S  PECUNIARY  REVERSE.      185 

morial.  But  misfortune  befell  it  at  the  threshold. 
Master  Eaton  immediately  proved  himself  a  huge 
mistake;  no  less,  in  short,  than  a  scoundrel  and  a 
ruffian.  His  brief  administration  was  marked  by  an 
incredible  meanness  and  violence.  Students  and 
instructors  alike  he  treated  with  extreme  outrage  and 
cruelty,  beating  them  inhumanly  on  the  least  pre- 
text,—  one  of  the  latter  he  clubbed  nearly  to  death, 
—  meantime  keeping  them  on  a  starvation  diet.  By 
Winthrop's  account  he  seems  to  have  been  insane. 
Both  state  and  church  took  him  in  hand;  but  he 
slipped  away  to  Virginia,  where,  says  the  Journal, 
"  he  took  upon  him  to  be  a  minister,  but  was  given 
up  of  God  to  extreme  pride  and  sensuality,  being 
usually  drunken,  as  is  the  custom  there." 

The  governor  never  had  a  liking  for  Virginia. 

A  new  head  for  the  college  was  found  in  the  Rev. 
Henry  Dunster,  —  the  first  entitled  president,  —  fresh 
from  Old  Cambridge,  a  gentleman  in  all  ways  wor- 
thy of  the  office,  which  he  adorned  thirteen  years ; 
though  he,  too,  saw  tribulation  in  it  before  he  was 
done,  in  consequence  of  turning  Baptist. 

But  to  Winthrop's  public  cares  the  weight  of  pri- 
vate adversity  was  at  this  time  added. 

In  the  autumn  of  1639  ne  sat  down  to  make  or 
to  complete  his  will.  He  had  made  one  nineteen 
years  before  in  the  old  country.  In  the  interval, 
however,  both  his  family  and  his  estate  had  enlarged ; 
he  had  now  an  extensive  property  in  New  England 
to  bequeath.     He  begins  with  assigning,  in  case  of 


1 86  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

his  death,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  his  house  in 
Boston,  of  his  land  "beyond  Powder-horn  Hill,"  of 
his  interest  in  the  windmill  and  in  the  fishery  at 
Mystic,  to  the  discharge  of  his  debts. 

Then,  —  we  note  the  principal  items  only,  omitting 
minor  bequests,  explanations  of  the  equity  of  the  dis- 
tribution, and,  with  especial  regret,  personal  touches 
that  suffuse  the  document  with  affection  and  reflect 
the  testator's  domestic  happiness,  —  to  Margaret  he 
gives  half  of  Ten  Hills  farm  during  her  life ;  to  John 
the  other  half,  and  eventually  the  whole;  to  Adam 
his  island  called  the  Governor's  Garden ;  to  Stephen 
his  half  of  the  Isle  Prudence  in  Narragansett  Bay; 
to  Deane  his  land  at  Pullen  Point,  —  present  town 
of  Winthrop,  —  and,  should  it  be  not  sold,  the  land 
beyond  Powder-horn  Hill ;  to  Samuel  his  lot  at  Con- 
cord and  half  his  twelve  hundred  acres  above  Con- 
cord ;  the  remaining  half  and  all  his  other  lands  not 
devised  —  there  are  still  two  thousand  acres  due  from 
the  country  —  to  John,  "my  good  son  John,"  who 
has  freely  relinquished  his  rights  "  both  in  his  moth- 
er's (Mary  Forth's)  inheritance  and  mine  to  a  great 
value,"  for  which  "  I  do  commend  him  to  the  Lord 
in  all  that  the  blessing  of  a  father  may  obtain  for  an 
abundant  recompense  upon  him  and  his." 

Not  till  a  year  and  a  half  later  —  June  25,  1641  — 
did  Winthrop  put  his  name  to  this  writing,  when  he 
finished  it  thus :  "  My  estate  becoming  since  much 
decayed  through  the  unfaithfulness  of  my  servant 
Luxford,  so  as  I  have  been  forced  to  sell  some  of  my 
land  already,  and  must  sell  more  for  satisfaction  of 


GOVERNOR'S  PECUNIARY  REVERSE.     187 

^2,600  debts,  whereof  I  did  not  know  of  more  than 
.£300,  when  I  intended  this  for  my  testament,  I  am 
now  forced  to  revoke  it,  and  must  leave  all  to  the 
most  wise  and  gracious  providence  of  the  Lord,  who 
hath  promised  not  to  fail  nor  forsake  me,  but  will  be 
an  husband  to  my  wife  and  a  father  to  our  chil- 
dren, as  he  hath  hereto  been  in  all  our  struggles. 
Blessed  be  his  holy  name."  The  postscript  does  not 
reveal  the  full  dimensions  of  his  loss.  By  the  em- 
bezzlement of  James  Luxford,  steward  of  his  English 
property,  he  had  been  reduced  from  circumstances  of 
affluence,  for  those  times,  to  poverty,  — and  he  a  man 
no  longer  young.  Tidings  of  the  matter  had  followed 
close  upon  the  draughting  of  the  will ;  but  there  was 
'suspicion  of  something  wrong  already,  as  the  will 
itself' intimates. 

The  governor  took  his  hard  fortune  like  a  man 
and  a  Christian,  as  might  be  expected.  He  makes 
no  moan,  but  keeps  on  with  the  Journal,  noting  all 
events,  political,  ecclesiastical,  commercial,  in  copious 
detail,  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  Letters  of  sym- 
pathy came  to  him  from  all  sides  —  some  from  Eng- 
land—  such  as  he  deserved.  Stanch  Endicott  wrote 
from  Salem,  —  sickness  ties  him  at  home  or  he  would 
come  to  see  him,  —  pouring  out  his  honest  heart  im- 
petuously in  really  a  flood  of  endearments,  praises, 
benedictions.  Winslow  of  Plymouth  did  the  same. 
Nor  were  words  all.  For  his  relief  the  people  of 
the  towns  made  up  a  subscription  of  nearly  ^500. 
Richard  Dummer  of  Newbury  sent  him  ^100, — 
which  meant  a  good  deal,  for  he  had  been  one  of  the 


188  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

disarmed  Antinomians.  The  General  Court  joined 
in  the  manifestation  of  good- will  by  voting  Margaret 
three  thousand  acres  of  land,  —  not  much  money's 
worth  in  it,  to  be  sure,  but  the  treasury  was  quite 
empty  just  then.  Most  significantly  of  all,  the  Bos- 
ton church  —  But  we  will  let  the  governor  himself 
tell  about  that :  — 

"By  this  time  there  appeared  a  great  change  in  the 
Church  of  Boston;  for  whereas,  the  year  before,  they 
were  all  (save  five  or  six)  so  affected  to  Mr.  Wheelwright 
&  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  &  those  new  opinions,  as  they 
slighted  the  present  governor  &  the  pastor,  looking  at 
them  as  men  under  a  covenant  of  works,  &  as  their  greatest 
enemies ;  but  they  bearing  all  patiently,  &  not  withdraw- 
ing themselves  (as  they  were  strongly  solicited  to  h:-.ve 
done,)  but  carrying  themselves  lovingly  &  helpfully  upon 
all  occasions,  the  Lord  brought  about  the  hearts  of  all  the 
people  to  love  &  esteem  them  more  than  ever  before,  & 
all  breaches  were  made  up,  &  the  Church  was  saved  from 
ruin  beyond  all  expectation ;  which  could  hardly  have 
been,  (in  human  reason,)  if  those  two  had  not  been  guided 
by  the  Lord  to  that  moderation,  etc.  And  the  Church 
(to  manifest  their  hearty  affection  to  the  governour,  upon 
occasion  of  some  strait  he  was  brought  into  through  his 
bailiff's  unfaithfulness)  sent  him  ^200." 

Brother  Winthrop's  behaviour  had  beyond  ques- 
tion been  of  a  highly  gospel  sort;  but  the  disaster 
helped  considerably  also,  no  doubt,  —  as  the  sickness 
did  awhile  ago. 

A  grateful  balm  to  his  excellency's  feelings  this 
Boston  demonstration  must  have  been,  for  the  es- 
trangement it  showed  at  an  end  was  a  lover's  quarrel. 


MOVEMENT  OF  DESERTION.  1 89 

Winthrop  was  a  poor  man  the  rest  of  his  life.     His 

heart  and  hope  for  this  world,  however,  were  chiefly 

bound  up  in  his  colony,  —  had  been  and  continued 

to  be.    JSo  that  Massachusetts  were  spared  and  pros- 

,  pered,  all  else  might  go  ;  he  had  enough  to  live  for. 

For  the  present,  his  private  reverses  trouble  him 
less  than  does  the  outcrop  of  certain  untoward  cir- 
cumstances of  a  new  kind  as  affecting  the  prospect 
of  the  country.  His  friend  John  Humphrey,  —  signer 
with  him  of  the  Cambridge  Agreement,  his  original 
deputy,  always  hitherto  one  of  the  colony's  stand-bys, 
—  being,  like  himself,  by  some  means  "  brought  low  in 
his  estate,"  thinks  he  will  mend  his  affairs  by  moving 
to  the  British  West  Indies,  where  he  has  influential 
acquaintance,  and  where  they  will  make  him  gover- 
nor. Moreover  and  worse,  he  is,  on  promise  of  ease 
and  plenty  there,  recruiting  a  company  to  go  with 
him,  —  which  Winthrop  likes  exceedingly  ill.  What 
nonsense,  when  people  who  some  time  since  came 
thence  to  us  brought,  as  we  saw,  "  meagre  and  un- 
healthful  countenances,"  but  here  soon  became  "  fat 
and  well-liking."  And  what  folly,  when  they  will 
there  have  perfidious  Spaniards  for  their  neighbours, 
and  no  such  liberties  as  our  charter  assures  to  us. 
And  what  a  wrong,  when  their  leaving  will  be  inter- 
preted abroad  as  a  sign  that  this  colony  is  not  to  be 
desired.  But  the  plan  was  "  crossed  by  the  hand  of 
God "  in  the  way  of  obstacles  and  accidents  that 
brought  it  to  small  result.  Mr.  Humphrey  did  not 
get  away  at  all,  and  the  few  who  did  shortly  came 
back. 


190  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

The  same  West  Indies  cloud,  however,  arose  from 
another  quarter.  Word  came  that  Lord  Say  and  Sele 
in  England  was  advocating  emigration  thither  in 
preference  to  Massachusetts,  and  for  a  bribe  was 
engaging  to  furnish  colonists  with  as  good  a  charter 
as  ours.  This  was  uncomfortable  news  indeed.  The 
governor  wrote  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele  —  it  was  in  the 
last  days  of  his  term  (1639-40)  — remonstrating  with 
him;  showing  him  "how  evident  it  was,  that  God 
had  chosen  this  country  to  plant  his  people  in,  and 
therefore  how  displeasing  it  would  be  to  the  Lord, 
and  dangerous  to  himself,  to  hinder  this  work,  or  to 
discourage  men  from  supplying  us,  by  abasing  the 
goodness  of  the  country,  which  he  never  saw,  and 
persuading  men,  that  here  was  no  possibility  of  sub- 
sistence ;  whereas  there  was  a  sure  ground  for  his 
children's  faith,  that,  being  sent  hither  by  him,  either 
he  saw  that  the  land  was  a  good  land,  and  sufficient 
to  maintain  them,  or  else  he  intended  to  make  it 
such,  etc."  To  which  his  lordship  replied,  freely 
owning  that  the  report  of  his  proceedings  was  true, 
but  saying  that  the  West  Indies  was,  in  his  opinion, 
so  much  better  a  place  than  Massachusetts  that  "  we 
were  all  called  to  remove  thither."  Than  which  no 
judgment  could  possibly  have  been  more  unsatisfac- 
tory to  his  correspondent. 

But  neither  by  this  movement  was  New  England 
much  the  loser. 


SECOND  RETIREMENT.  IQI 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

NEW  ASPECTS,    HOME   AND   FOREIGN. 
( 1 640-1 644.) 

HAvrNG  borne  the  highest  office  three  years  running, 
Winthrop  was  now  (in  1640)  again  released  from  its 
yoke,  and  to  his  entire  content.  The  succession 
fell  on  Dudley.  The  treatment  of  the  retiring  incum- 
bent on  the  occasion  was  becomingly  considerate. 
Not  only  was  he  retained  in  public  service  as  head  of 
the  bench  of  Assistants,  but  the  elders  —  more  in 
sympathy  with  the  commons  since  the  Antinomian 
experience  than  formerly  —  who,  "  fearing  lest  the  long 
continuance  of  one  man  in  the  place  should  bring  it 
to  be  for  life,  and  in  time  hereditary,"  had  openly 
advised  the  change,  deputed  some  of  their  number 
"  to  acquaint  the  old  governor  with  their  desire,  and 
the  reasons  moving  them,  clearing  themselves  of  all 
dislike  of  his  government,  and  seriously  professing 
their  sincere  affections  and  respect  towards  him,  which 
he  kindly  and  thankfully  accepted,  concurring  with 
them  in  their  motion,  and  expressing  his  unfeigned 
desire  of  more  freedom,  that  he  might  a  little  intend 
his  private  occasions,  wherein  (they  well  knew)  how 
much  he  had  lately  suffered." 


192  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

Moreover  Governor  Dudley  is,  in  his  regard,  "a 
gentleman  ...  of  approved  wisdom  and  godliness, 
and  of  much  good  service  to  the  country,  and  there- 
fore it  was  his  due  to  share  in  such  honour  and  benefit 
as  the  country  had  to  bestow." 

Completing  the  election  record  of  the  period  to  be 
covered  by  this  chapter,  there  will  be  in  1641  another 
shift,  —  Dudley  sent  down  to  the  rank  of  Assistant,  and 
Richard  Bellingham  made  governor;  but  in  1642  — 
from  which  date  as  a  standpoint  we  resume  —  it  is  Win- 
throp  again,  and  for  a  double  term, — for  then  once  more 
there  are  reasons  imperatively  requiring  the  Best  Man. 

In  the  interval  of  Dudley's  and  Bellmgham's  admin- 
istrations much  has  happened.  Events  in  England  have 
moved  at  a  rapid  pace.  Long  Parliament  has  met ; 
Strafford's  head  has  fallen ;  Laud  is  in  the  Tower ; 
issue  between  liberty  and  the  tyranny  of  Charles  Stuart 
is  finally  joined.  A  new  day,  bright  with  new  hopes  for 
the  people,  has  dawned,  though  erelong  it  will  darken 
into  civil  war.  Massachusetts  shares  the  congratula- 
tion of  the  auspicious  hour,  and  in  some  ways  par- 
takes the  benefits  of  it,  — v^njpys  an  unprecedented 
sense  of  security,  and  is  released  into  freedom  of 
action,  before  restrained,  in  various  directions.  Thus 
we  annex  to  our  jurisdiction,  at  their  desire,  a*  cluster 
of  New  Hampshire  towns,  conceived  on  a  liberal 
construction  of  the  Merrimack  River  clause  —  the 
Merrimack  sources  are  up  that  way  —  to  be  within  our 
patent.  We  admit  them,  and  give  their  deputies 
voice  in  our  General  Court,  yet,  as  calls  for  note,  with- 
out imposing  on  them  the  same  church-membership 


THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION.  193 

rule  of  civil  privilege  by  which  we  are  bound.  \jye 
are  also  free,  with  the  charter  so  safe  in  hand,  to 
furnish  our  commonwealth  with  a  legal  code  of  our 
own,  which  we  have  long  desired ;  and  do  accord- 
ingly adopt  a  scheme  of  laws,j2ne  hundred  in  num- 
ber, styled  the\Body  of  Liberties j)  mainly  the  draught 
of  Nathaniel  Ward,  elder  of  Ipswich,  but  lawyer- 
bred  and  highly  competent  for  that  work ;  the  most 
humane  code  to  this  time  enacted  in  Christendom, 
with,  for  one  item,  a  list  of  but  eleven  capital  offences 
to  England's  thirty-two.  We  furthermore,  John  Eliot 
urging  us  to  it,  take  more  earnestly Jrito  consideration 
our  duty  of  evangelizing  the  Indians. 

But  the  new  posture  of  affairs  in  the  old  country 
is  also  the  source  of  great  detriment  to  New  England, 
—  of  distress  even.  It  puts  a  stop  to  emigration  for 
good  and  for  all.  Twenty  one  thousand  in  round 
numbers,  it  is  estimated,  had  come  over  thus  far; 
that  is,  in  the  Puritan  exodus.  Of  these  with  their 
increase,  about  fifteen  thousand  —  census  of  a  Boston 
suburb  at  present  —  were  included  in  the  population 
of  Massachusetts ;  and  there  her  growth  by  emigra- 
tion reached  its  period.  It  is  Hutchinson's  judg- 
ment that  from  1640  onward  for  an  hundred  years 
and  more  not  so  many  came  from  England  to  the 
colony  as  went  from  the  colony  to  England. 

From  the  moment  the  omens  of  the  Revolution 
became  clear  and  decided,  heroic  spirits  on  this  side 
were  fired  with  the  impulse  to  hasten  across  and  throw 
themselves  into  it.  When  word  came,  says  Winthrop, 
of  "^e,  calling  of  a  parliament,  and  the  hope  of  a 

13 


194  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

thorough  reformation,  .  .  .  some  among  us  began  to 
think  of  returning  back  to  England."  Numbers  did  so  ; 
twelve  of  the  first  twenty  graduates  of  Harvard,  and  of 
other  representatives  of  the  leading  families  of  the 
country  not  a  few,  —  Stephen  Winthrop  one.  Indeed, 
in  the  whole  tremendous  chapter  of  English  history 
then  beginning,  New  England  played,  from  first  to  last, 
a  by  no  means  inconsiderable  part.  Nor  was  it  without 
invitation.  When  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines was  about  to  be  convoked  by  Parliament,  Cotton 
of  Boston,  Hooker  of  Hartford,  and  Davenport  of  New 
Haven  were,  by  letter,  —  five  peers  and  Oliver  Crom- 
well in  the  imposing  list  of  its  signers,  —  urged  to 
assist  in  its  deliberations.  A  ship  would  be  sent  for 
them.  They  did  not  go,  —  for  prudential  reasons 
chiefly.  New  England  was  wary  of  all  ventures  that 
might  involve  risk  to  her  independence  in  church  or 
state ;  but  that  they  were  wanted  denotes  the  repute 
abroad  of  the  New  England  leaders. 

The  immediate  effect,  however,  of  the  turn  of  af- 
fairs in  the  mother  country,  which,  Winthrop  observes, 
"  caused  all  men  to  stay  in  England  in  expectation  of 
a  new  world," — a  little  ruefully  he  seems  to  speak, 
and  as  if  he  were  not  quite  so  sanguine  as  some  of  the 
millennium  right  off,  —  was  extreme  hard  times.  Not 
alone  emigrants  ceased  to  arrive,  but  ships  as  well. 
English  trade  was  disastrously  knocked  in  the  head. 
An  incidental  result  was  to  stimulate  efforts  to  enlarge 
commerce  up  and  down  the  American  Atlantic  coast, 
and  especially  to  develop  the  enterprise  of  ship- 
building.     In  the  summer  of    1642   five    sea- going 


HARD    TIMES.  195 

vessels  were  launched,  and  in  no  long  time  Massachu- 
setts had  a  sufficient  merchant  fleet  of  her  own  ;  but 
for  the  present  the  colony  was  in  straits.  "  All  foreign 
commodities  grew  scarce,  and  our  own  of  no  price." 
The  country  was  drained  of  money  :  and  obligations 
falling  due  in  England  could  not  be  met,  to  our  deep 
chagrin,  and,  we  fear,  to  the  hurt  of  our  credit.  The 
uneasy  General  Court  sends  over  Elder  Hugh  Peter 
of  Salem,  —  whom  we  shall  never  see  again,  —  Elder 
Thomas  Welde  of  Roxbury,  and  merchant  William 
Hibbins  of  Boston,  with  whom  goes  also  John  Win- 
throp,  Jr.,  "to  congratulate  the  happy  success  there," 
to  do  what  they  can  to  accommodate  matters  with  our 
creditors,  and  to  obtain  relief  for  our  necessities ;  "  but 
with  this  caution,  that  they  should  not  seek  to  supply 
our  wants  in  any  dishonourable  way,  as  by  begging  or 
the  like,"  though  they  may  collect  money  for  the  sup- 
port of  our  Indian  missions. 

There  was  further  caution  observed  in  the  pre- 
mises. Some,  on  suggestion  of  friends  in  England, 
had  thought  it  advisable  to  have  recourse  to  the  well- 
disposed  Parliament  for  the  alleviation  of  the  colony's 
embarrassment.  But  upon  that  the  sages  in  council 
had  cried,  Hold  !  Go  carefully  there  !  We  no  more 
want  to  let  Parliament  into  the  management  of  our 
affairs  than  any  other  outside  authority  !  No  word  of 
instructions,  therefore,  from  the  General  Court !  The 
delegation  did,  nevertheless,  get  the  case  before  Par- 
liament ;  and  Parliament  showed  practical  sympathy 
by  granting  Massachusetts  free  trade  till  further  orders, 
and  was  pleased  at  the  same  time  to  annul  all  legal 


196  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

proceedings  that  lay  against  the  charter.  But  in  that 
our  friends  acted  wholly  on  their  private  responsi- 
bility ;  the  colony  government,  as  such,  had  nothing 
to  do  with  it,  —  though  for  so  valuable  favours  exceed- 
ingly obliged. 

It  could  not  be  that  in  such  a  thrifty,  self-reliant 
community  the  hard  times  would  long  continue  at 
the  pinching  point ;  but  they  were  very  hard  while 
they  lasted.  The  supply  of  food  even  was  short,  and 
there  was  positive  suffering.  The  worst  consequence, 
however,  to  Winthrop's  view,  was  the  despairing  flight 
from  the  country  of  a  considerable  number,  including 
several  persons  of  importance,  —  some  to  the  West 
Indies,  some  to  New  York,  but  the  most  to  Eng- 
land. To  him  this  was  a  desertion  in  the  highest 
degree  ignominious.  He  could  not  bear  with  it.  It 
was  ever  his  wont  to  discern  in  adversities  befalling 
those  who  forsook  Massachusetts  a  testimony  of 
Providence  against  them.  On  this  occasion  he  so 
interprets  a  variety  of  ills,  in  their  persons,  families, 
affairs,  that  certain  of  the  fugitives  presently  incurred, 
—  as  the  manifest  frown  of  heaven.  He  pours  out  in 
the  Journal  the  bitterness  of  his  grieved  and  indignant 
soul,  in  language  of  imaginary  address  to  the  rec- 
reants, repeating  obviously  the  substance  of  remon- 
strances exhausted  upon  them  :  — 

14  Ask  thy  conscience  if  thou  wouldst  have  plucked  up 
thy  stakes,  and  brought  thy  family  3,000  miles,  if  thou 
hadst  expected  that  all,  or  most,  would  have  forsaken  thee 
there.  Ask  again,  what  liberty  thou  hast  towards  others, 
which  thou  likest  not  to  allow  others  towards  thyself  ;  for 


\ 

RECONSTRUCTION  OF  LEGISLATURE.      197 

if  one  may  go,  another  may,  and  so  the  greater  part,  and 
so  church  and  commonwealth  may  be  left  destitute  in  a 
wilderness,  exposed  to  misery  and  reproach,  and  all  for 
thy  ease  and  pleasure,  whereas  these  all,  being  now  thy 
brethren,  as  near  to  thee  as  the  Israelites  were  to  Moses, 
it  were  much  safer  for  thee,  after  his  example,  to  choose 
rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  thy  brethren,  than  to  enlarge 
thy  ease  and  pleasure  by  furthering  the  occasion  of  their 
ruin." 

It  was  inevitable  that  in  a  season  of  reverse  and 
foreboding,  when  men's  hearts  were  failing  them,  he 
who  was  not  only  ablest  chief,  but  whose  anchorage 
to  the  public  interest  was,  as  all  knew,  a  religious 
consecration,  should  be  recalled  to  power. 

During  the  two  terms  Winthrop  now  served  —  his 
eighth  and  ninth  —  important  things  occurred  in  the 
field  both  of  home  politics  and  of  New  England  rela- 
tions. In  the  second  year  —  and  by  the  way  that  year 
(1643)  tne  P^dge  of  fealty  to  our  Sovereign  Lord 
King  Charles,  who  had  set  up  his  standard  at  Notting- 
ham the  previous  summer,  was  left  out  of  the  gover- 
nor's oath  —  the  Great  and  General  Court  underwent  a 
notable  modification,  external  and  internal.  Hitherto 
the  two  orders  composing  it,  though  voting  separately, 
had  met  in  one  assembly.  It  was  now  divided  into 
two  chambers,  —  of  magistrates  and  of  deputies  re- 
spectively, —  each  to  meet  and  act  by  itself.  Hitherto 
in  case  of  disagreement  between  deputies  and  magis- 
trates, the  prerogative  of  veto  —  or  of  the  negative 
voice,  as  it  was  called  —  had  rested  with  the  latter 
only,    though  not   without   protest.     Now   the   veto 


198  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

power  was  to  be  mutual,  the  concurrence  of  both 
chambers  being  required  to  effect  legislation,  —  as 
remains  the  rule  to  this  daj^ 
"^These  changes  in  the  chieflnstitution  of  the  civil 
stafe  were  a  victory  for  the  commons.  For  the  agita- 
tion through  which  they  came  about  the  colony  had  a 
good  while  been  ripening ;  but  it  was  precipitated 
by  a  trifling  and  even  a  ridiculous  occasion,  —  as  the 
governor  humorously  feels,  for  in  his  long,  entertain- 
ing account  of  its  sequel  he  dves  it  the  name  it  bears 
in  history,  the  Sow  Business.  ]  It  will  be  necessary  to 
condense  our  statement  of  the  affair  into  briefest 
compass,  omitting  numerous  collateral  and  related 
incidents. 

A  stray  pig  wandered  into  the  yard  of  Captain 
Keayne  of  Boston.  It  was  advertised  at  the  time  in 
vain ;  but  nearly  a  year  after,  Mrs.  Sherman,  who  had 
lost  a  pig,  appeared,  and  failing  to  identify  the  stray, 
claimed  that  a  pig  of  his  own  Captain  Keayne  had 
meanwhile  butchered  was  her  missing  property,  — 
claimed  it  so  noisily  that  Elders  Cotton  and  Wilson 
inquired  into  the  matter  and  found  for  Captain  Keayne. 
Then  Mrs.  Sherman  sued  him.  Defendant  won  the 
case,  with  three  pounds'  costs ;  and  in  his  turn  brought 
suit  against  Mrs.  Sherman,  who  had  charged  him  with 
theft,  for  defamation  of  character,  recovering  twenty 
pounds'  damages.  The  lady  appealed  to  the  General 
Court.  The  General  Court  took  a  week  to  hear  both 
sides,  when  the  magistrates,  seven  to  two,  reaffirmed 
the  judgment,  and  the  deputies,  fifteen  to  eight,  re- 
voked it.     On  a  joint  ballot  Mrs.  Sherman  had  a  ma- 


THE  SOW  BUSINESS  199 

jority  j    but  according  to   precedent,  the  magistrates 
being  against  her,  her  appeal  had  failed. 

And  now  —  six  years  after  its  origin,  for  the  stray 
pig  dated  back  to  1637  —  the  cause  passed  into  poli- 
tics. The  general  public  went  into  debate  upon  it. 
The  facts  that  Captain  Keayne  was  a  rich  man  with 
a  reputation  for  hard  dealing,  and  that  Mrs.  Sherman 
was  poor,  were  made  great  use  of  to  give  an  odjous 
colour  to  the  result  the  magistrates  had  reached.  [The 
cry  of  reform  was  raised.  Down  with  that  instrument 
of  injustice,  the  Negative  Voicejj  The  magistrates 
were  put  on  their  defence.  The  governor  took  up  his 
lawyer's  pen,  and  wrote  out  for  circulation  a  charac- 
teristically painstaking,  elaborate  digest  of  the  whole 
matter  from  the  beginning,  to  demonstrate  the  right- 
eousness of  the  conclusion  arrived  at.  The  elders 
examined  the  evidence,  and  declared  their  mind  upon 
it  to  the  same  effect.  But  the  people  would  not  be 
satisfied.  They  had  countenance  of  the  magisterial 
minority,  —  especially  of  Richard  Bellingham,  late  gov- 
ernor, who  had  formerly  quarrelled  with  Winthrop  and 
was  always  an  uncomfortable  worthy.  A  petition  for 
the  reopening  of  the  question  was  submitted  to  the 
General  Court,  and  reported  favourably  by  a  committee. 
But  upon  Captain  Keayne's  restoring,  at  private  instance 
of  friends,  so  much  of  Mrs.  Sherman's  damage  money 
as  had  been  paid  him,  the  Court  was  content  to  go  no 
further.  The  contention,  however,  held  on  with  ris- 
ing passion  ;  and  endeavours  were  put  forth  to  allay  it. 
The  governor,  perceiving  that  his  argument  in  behalf 
of  the  magistrates   had  angered  the  opposition,  took 


200  JOHN    WINTHROP. 

occasion  —  apparently  at  the  1643  Court  of  Elections 

—  to  make  a  conciliatory  speech.  He  began  :  "  I 
understand  divers  have  taken  offence  at  a  writing  I 
set  forth  about  the  Sow  Business  ;  I  desire  to  remove 
it,  and  to  begin  my  year  in  a  reconciled  state  with  all." 
Then,  premising  that  he  still  stood  by  the  matter  of 
what  he  had  written,  —  no  one  surely  would  ask  him 
to  do  otherwise,  seeing  it  was  his  real  opinion,  —  he 
owned  that  as  to  the  manner  of  it  there  was  some- 
what to  be  repented  of.  He  had  allowed  impatience 
to  betray  him  into  a  tone  of  too  little  consideration 
for  the  judgment  and  feeling  of  those  who  differed 
from  him ;  which  he  now  entreated  all  who  had  been 
hurt  by  it  to  pardon  and  pass  by.  "  If  you  please  to 
accept  my  request,"  he  concluded,  "your  silence  shall 
be  a  sufficient  testimony  thereof  unto  me,  and  I  hope 
I  shall  be  more  wise  and  watchful  hereafter." 

This  grace  of  his  excellency  mollifie(L^he  temper  of 
the  dispute,  but  did  not  terminate  it.  The  Negative 
Voice  was  fully  discovered  to  be  intolerable ;  and  the 
freemen   ceased   not  —  equis  et  velis,  says  Winthrop 

—  to  urge  its  abolition.  The  magistrates  resisted 
stoutly.  We  cannot  constitutionally  abdicate  our 
prerogative,  they  pleaded  ;  it  will  alter  the  frame  of 
the  government.  Winthrop  resorted  to  his  pen 
again.  What  is  proposed  —  he  reasoned  with  great 
vigour  and  at  great  length  —  is  contrara  to  the  charter, 
and  will  make  us  g  a  mere  democracyj'  The  elders 
thought  so  too.  \Bj>t  all  availed  not,  and  finally  the 
magistrates  yieldea ;  not  indeed  in  laying  down  the 
Negative  Voice,  but  —  what  was  the  same  in  effect  — 


THE   UNITED   COLONIES.  201 

in  conceding  it  to  the  commons  also,  as  has  been 
stated^ 

True  to  his  habit  and  principle  of  accepting  accom- 
plished facts,  Winthrop  simply  records  the  result,  with 
no  remark  save  that  thus  was  "  determined  the  great 
contention  about  the  negative  voice." 

Parallel  to  the  Sow  Business  in  its  later  stages, 
another  weighty  concern,  devolving  a  great  responsi- 
bility upon  the  governor,  was  dealt  with  and  brought 
to  an  issue, -4)he  formation  of  the  New  England 
ConfederacA  whereby  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven  were  leagued 
together  for  their  mutual  protection  and  peace. 
Their  distance  apart,  originally  in  some  cases  occa- 
sioned by  want  of  accord,  now  made  a  reason  for  their 
combining.  They  were  exposed  to  inroad  from  the 
Manhattan  Dutch  and  Delaware  Bay  Swedes  below, 
from  the  French  above,  and  on  all  sides  from  the  In- 
dians. In  case  of  aggression,  the  mother  country,  torn 
by  civil  strife,  could  not  be  looked  to  for  assistance. 
They  must  therefore  be  ready  to  help  one  another. 
The  scheme  of  such  a  coalition  had  been  broached 
by  Connecticut  just  after  the  Pequot  War,  and  had 
repeatedly  since  been  a  subject  of  ineffectual  confer- 
ence; but  in  1643  Connecticut,  of  late  on  bad 
terms  with  her  Dutch  neighbours,  moved  again  in 
the  matter,  and  this  time  with  result.  A  conven- 
tion of  delegates,  assembled  in  Boston,  framed  a  con- 
tract by  which  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England 
bound  themselves  to  act  together  in  various  specified 
contingencies,  and  in  relation  to  their  common  inter- 


202  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

ests,  —  the  execution  of  the  contract  to  be  intrusted  to 
a  board  of  eight  commissioners,  two  from  each  colony. 

The  plantations  in  Maine,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges 
proprietor,  asked  for  admission  to  the  league,  but 
were  refused,  "  because  they  ran  a  different  course 
from  us,  both  in  their  ministry  and  civil  administra- 
tion." The  Rhode  Island  and  Narragansett  planta- 
tions also  wanted  to  join,  but  were  likewise  refused, 
on  the  ground  that  they  lacked  the  qualification  of 
a  sufficiently  fixed  and  stable  government.  They 
might  come  into  the  benefits  of  the  pact  by  annexa- 
tion to  Massachusetts  or  to  Plymouth  if  they  thought 
best. 

The  commissioners  met  for  the  first  time,  Sep- 
tember, 1643,  *n  Boston,  and  —  what  it  needed  not  a 
prophet  to  foretell  —  organized  by  choosing  John 
Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  president.  The  Confed- 
eracy went  into  immediate  practical  operation  ac- 
cording to  its  design.  It  did  not  always  escape  dis- 
sension in  its  councils ;  but  on  the  whole  it  answered 
its  purpose,  and  played  an  important  part  in  pro- 
moting the  progress  of  the  country.  By  its  means 
many  differences  between  the  parties  to  it  were  har- 
monized, and  New  England  presented  a  single  front 
to  her  adversaries.  It  lasted  more  than  forty  years, 
till  the  day  of  royal  governors,  and  bequeathed  to  later 
times  a  memory  and  a  lesson  that  were  not  lost. 

If  one  may  judge,  this  second  year  (1643-44)  of 
his  occupancy  of  the  chief  office  at  this  time  —  his 
ninth  term  —  was  the  hardest  working  year  Winthrop 


THE  ACADIAN  BOTHER.  203 

saw  in  Massachusetts  ;  unless  it  were  the  year  follow- 
ing the  arrival.  It  had  begun  with  a  circumstance  of 
noteworthy  interest  as  exactly  reproducing,  in  one 
point,  a  circumstance  of  his  retirement  in  1634,  but 
with  a  difference  to  Winthrop.  As  on  the  earlier 
occasion  John  Cotton's  election  sermon1  against 
change  in  the  magistracy  had  been  futile,  so  was 
Ezekiel  Rogers's  election  sermon  in  1643,  vehemently 
dissuading  the  General  Court  fronV  "  choosing  the 
same  man  twice  together."  The  labour  of  the 
worthy  elders  was  equally  lost  in  eithefrsease/t"    > 

But  the  term  inaugurated  with  so  signal  a  rnksl/of 
public  favour  the  governor  was  not  permitted  to  end 
without  tasting  again  the  disagreeable  experience  of 
unpopularity ;  which  arose  from  the  development  just 
then  of  a  new  chapter  of  the  memorable  D'Aulnay- 
La  Tour  episode  in  New  England's  foreign  relations, 
the  long  confused  story  of  which,  with  its  multitu- 
dinous ins  and  outs,  it  would  take  a  volume  to  tell. 

One  day  in  June  Winthrop  and  his  family,  recreat- 
ing themselves  on  the  Governor's  Garden,  saw  a  boat 
pulling  toward  them  with  all  speed,  closely  followed  by 
another  that  had  put  off  from  a  ship  just  entering  the 
harbour.  Boat  number  one  proved  to  contain  Mrs. 
Captain  Gibbons,  of  Boston,  and  her  children,  all  in  a 
fright  at  being  so  pursued.  There  was  no  reason  for 
alarm,  however ;  it  was  a  friendly  chase,  as  in  a  few 
minutes  transpired.  For  out  of  boat  number  two 
stepped  ashore  Monsieur  Charles  La  Tour,  of  New 
Brunswick,  whose  acquaintance  both  Mrs.  Gibbons 
1  See  page  116. 


204  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

and  the  governor  had  made  when  he  was  in  Boston 
some  time  since,  and  who  explained  that,  recognizing 
the  lady  as  she  passed  near  his  vessel,  he  had  de- 
scended to  pay  her  his  complimentary  devoir-  All 
very  well  so  far.  But  the  ship  was  full  of  soldiers, 
and  there  were  circumstances  to  suggest  a  question 
whether  its  arrival  in  port  were  of  an  answerably  pa- 
cific intent.  There  was  so  much  room  for  doubt  on 
the  subject  that,  swift  oars  or  sails  having  run  ahead 
with  the  news  of  its  approach,  by  the  time  it  anchored 
before  Boston  the  militia  was  out,  and  three  shallop- 
loads  of  armed  citizens  were  on  the  way  to  the  Gov- 
ernor's Garden.  Meanwhile  over  the  supper-table 
there  Monsieur  La  Tour  was  telling  the  governor  how 
it  was  that  he  had  appeared  in  such  shape. 

For  the  reader's  understanding  we  are  obliged  to 
give  a  statement  of  antecedents,  which  shall  be  the 
shortest  possible.  Not  to  go  further  back  than  is 
necessary,  at  the  period  of  the  settlement  of  Massa- 
chusetts all  the  East  Country  from  the  Penobscot  to 
Cape  Breton  —  called  at  large  Acadie  —  was  French 
territory,  of  which  Charles  La  Tour  and  D'Aulnay 
de  Charnise  each  claimed  to  be  rightful  governor, 
and  denounced  the  other  as  a  rebel.  Both  were  on 
the  ground ;  La  Tour  holding  the  New  Brunswick 
region,  D'Aulnay  Nova  Scotia  and  Maine.  Both  had 
fortified  posts,  and  they  were  at  open  war,  each  striv- 
ing to  oust  the  other  by  force  of  arms.  Each  had 
powerful  friends  at  the  French  court  to  sustain  his 
cause,  where  such  a  game  of  checkmate  was  played 
for  them,  that  for  a  series  of  years  each  could  make 


THE  ACADIAN  BOTHER.  205 

out  a  plausible  case  for  himself  on  the  basis  of  official 
credentials.  Both  were  money-makers,  —  trapping 
their  main  pursuit,  —  both  wanted  to  trade  with  New 
England,  and  with  both  New  England  wanted  to  trade. 
The  difficulty  was  to  keep  out  of  their  quarrel,  —  which, 
however,  could  not  be  managed,  for  each  held  him- 
self free  to  molest  the  business  of  the  other.  Hence 
endless  annoyance  and  no  small  damage  to  New  Eng- 
enders who  tried  commercial  ventures  with  either. 

The  account  of  his  surprising  entry  which  La  Tour  is 
giving  Winthrop  over  the  supper- table  at  the  Gover- 
nor's Garden  is  this :  While  in  his  fortress  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John  River  expecting  a  ship  from 
home  bringing  him  supplies,  men,  and  latest  new 
documents  with  which  to  trump  those  of  his  adver- 
sary, D'Aulnay  had  blockaded  the  port  with  such  a 
force  that  when  the  ship  came  it  could  not  get  in. 
Whereupon  he  (La  Tour)  had  stolen  through  the 
blockade  by  night,  boarded  the  ship,  and  brought  it 
just  as  it  was  to  Boston.  What  he  wants  is  help  to 
drive  off  D'Aulnay. 

The  governor  is  inclined  in  his  favour,  but  must 
refer  the  question  to  the  magistrates.  Accordingly 
the  two  take  boat  for  Boston.  There,  under  escort 
of  a  guard  of  musketeers,  the  governor  conducts  La 
Tour  to  Captain  Gibbons' s  house,  where,  as  has  been 
arranged,  he  will  lodge.  So  the  visitor,  leaving  his 
ship  at  anchor  yonder,  and  placing  his  person  in  the 
power  of  the  authorities  on  shore,  makes  clear  — 
what  till  then  was  not  quite  clear  —  that  he  means 
peaceably.     But  Winthrop  has  noted  that  since  the 


206  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

Castle  Island  defences  have  been  suffered  to  fall  into 
a  ruinous  state  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  an  enemy 
from  sailing  in  and  doing  his  will  on  Boston  un- 
checked ;  which  blunder  of  false  economy  the  Gen- 
eral Court  ought  immediately  to  repair,  and  will. 

Next  day  the  magistrates  are  called  together,  and 
the  case  stated.  La  Tour  produces  his  commission 
as  "  King's  Lieutenant- General  in  Acadie,"  dated 
1 64 1,  —  revoked,  it  seems,  by  machinations  of  D'Aul- 
nay  some  while  since,  but  of  that  he  makes  no 
mention.  The  magistrates,  though  sympathizing  with 
him,  and  satisfied  that  his  is  the  winning  side  which 
it  were  good  policy  to  back,  find  that  the  business  be- 
longs decidedly  to  the  new  United  Colonies  Commis- 
sion ;  that  Massachusetts  by  herself  can  do  nothing 
officially  about  it.  But  they  judge  —  too  hastily,  as 
Winthrop  afterward  acknowledges  —  that  he  is  at  lib- 
erty to  make  up  a  military  expedition  by  private 
contract,  and  will  not  interfere  with  his  doing  so. 
Four  hired  ships  with  their  crews  and  seventy  paid 
volunteers  were  soon  en  route  for  the  scene  of  war. 
The  blockade  was  broken ;  but  the  war  went  on  still 
other  years  with  infinite  small  campaigning  and  di- 
plomacy, and  no  end  of  bother  to  New  England, 
cajoled  and  threatened  by  either  Frenchman  in  turn, 
till  D'Aulnay  died  and  La  Tour  consolidated  the  rival 
interests  by  marrying  his  widow. 

The  tale  of  the  whole  affair  in  its  shifting  phases, 
as  long  drawn  out  in  the  Journal,  is  replete  with  in- 
cidents and  comments  —  reflections  of  the  manners 
and  thoughts  of  the   time  —  that   are   diverting   to 


THE  ACADIAN  BOTHER.  207 

read.  There  is  an  element  of  comedy  in  it :  for  ex- 
amples, —  the  embarrassment  of  the  presence  in  Bos- 
ton on  a  Sabbath  of  two  Franciscan  friars  of  D'Aulnay's 
suite ;  what  to  do  with  them  an  intricate  matter ; 
solved  by  Winthrop's  inviting  them  to  his  house, 
"  where  they  continued  private  all  that  day  until  sun- 
set, and  made  use  of  such  books,  Latin  and  French,  as 
he  had,  and  so  gave  no  offence,  etc. ;  "  —  Winthrop's 
utilization  as  a  present  to  D'Aulnay  of  a  sumptuous 
sedan-chair,  originally  "sent  by  the  viceroy  of  Mexico 
to  a  lady,  his  sister,"  but  made  prize  of  in  transit,  and 
by  its  captor  given  to  the  governor,  u  worth  forty  or 
fifty  pounds,  .  .  .  but  of  no  use  to  us ;  "  —  the  punc- 
tilios of  etiquette  and  the  military  pageantry  with 
which  the  warring  chiefs  of  Acadie,  now  one  and 
now  the  other,  were  entertained  by  the  Puritans  of 
the  Bay. 

The  unofficial  concession  to  La  Tour  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1643,  which  has  been  described,  created  much 
displeasure  in  the  colony.  Some  of  the  ministers 
strongly  condemned  it,  as  did  also  a  minority  of  the 
Assistants  who  had  opposed  it  at  the  time.  It  was 
pronounced  against  on  several  grounds.  It  was  aid- 
ing Roman  idolaters.  La  Tour,  indeed,  pretended 
Huguenot  sympathies,  and  went  to  meeting  when  he 
was  in  Boston ;  but  that  was  unquestionable  sham. 
Again,  it  was  a  shrewd  scheme  to  capture  trade  for 
Boston  j  and  Essex  County,  —  the  thirty  towns  had 
recently  been  divided  into  four  counties,  Suffolk,  Nor- 
folk, Essex,  Middlesex,  —  with  Salem  for  its  port,  was 
commercially  jealous  of  Boston.     But  what  was  made 


208  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

most  of  was  the  danger  it  invited  of  vengeance  from 
D'Aulnay. 

The  disaffection  was  first  formally  expressed  in  a 
protest,  bearing  the  names  of  a  number  of  leading 
citizens,  mostly  from  Salem  and  thereabouts,  addressed 
to  the  governor.  Winthrop's  voluminous  reply  to  it, 
though  frankly  admitting  that  the  authorities  had 
probably  erred  in  adopting  a  less  circumspect  attitude 
toward  La  Tour  than  was  due,  is  pervaded  with  a  fine 
dignity,  and  spirited.  The  terror  of  D'Aulnay  moves 
him  to  contempt :  — 

"  All  amounts  to  this  summe,  the  Lord  hath  brought  us 
hither,  through  the  swelling  seas,  through  perills  of 
pyrates,  tempests,  leakes,  fires,  rocks,  sands,  diseases, 
starvings,  and  hath  here  preserved  us  these  many  yeares 
from  the  displeasure  of  Princes,  the  envy  and  rage  of 
Prelates,  the  malignant  plots  of  Jesuits,  the  mutinous 
contentions  of  discontented  persons,  the  open  and  secret 
attempts  of  barbarous  Indians,  the  seditious  and  under- 
mineing  practices  of  hereticall  false  brethren  ;  and  is  our 
confidence  and  courage  all  swallowed  up  in  the  feare  of 
one  D'Aulnay  ?" 

While  the  excitement  of  this  broil  was  nothing  like 
so  hot  as  the  fierce  combustion  of  the  Antinomian 
Controversy,  the  popular  feeling  against  the^  magis- 
trates was  very  warm,  and,  as  was  natural,  it  focussed 
on  the  governor.  He  had  friends,  however,  who  with- 
stood the  contagion  of  it.  Loyal  Endicott  wrote  from 
Salem  —  the  very  heart  of  the  discontent  —  to  assure 
him  that  though  he  thought  he  had  made  a  mistake,  he 
and  a  plenty  more  in  that  quarter  believed  wholly  in 


RETIRED  AGAIN.  209 

the  integrity  of  his  motives.  "  Sir,  be  of  good  com- 
fort," he  said,  "  I  doubt  not  but  our  God  who  is  in 
heaven  will  carry  you  above  all  the  injuries  of  men, 
for  I  know  you  would  not  permit  anything,  much  less 
act  in  anything,  that  might  tend  to  the  damage  of  this 
people."  Assistant  Bradstreet,  of  Ipswich,  a  signer 
of  the  protest,  also  wrote  declaring  in  the  strongest 
terms  the  respect  and  honour  in  which  he  held  him  \ 
and  others  in  like  manner  testified  the  same. 

But  when  it  came  to  the  next  election  (May,  1644) 
he  was  not  chosen  governor.  That  he  was  only 
transferred  to  the  second  place,  and  that,  not  Belling  - 
ham  chief  fomenter  of  the  present  dissatisfaction, 
but  Endicott,  was  put  above  him,  denotes  the  good 
will  toward  his  person  with  which  the  change  was 
made,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  public  sense  of  the 
expediency  of  retaining  him  in  high  position.  The 
more  direct  rebuke  of  the  course  taken  in  the  case  of 
La  Tour  with  which  he  was  identified,  was  expressed 
in  his  and  Dudley's  removal  from  their  postsasxoaw_ 
missioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  and  the  substi- 
TuTion  of  representatives  of  the  opposition  view, — 
which  view  the  commission,  as  a  whole,  would  adopt, 
crossing  the  Bay  magistrate's  tacit  sanction  of  the  St. 
John  expedition  with  explicit  disapproval.  None  the 
less,  therefore,  will  John  Winthrop  be  ready  on  every 
occasion,  without  stint  of  pains,  to  help  the  country 
work  out  the  tangled  problem  of  Acadian  relations. 

For  two  more  years  now,  Massachusetts  is  to  fare 
on  without  her  Best  Man  at  the  helm,  though  in  all 

14 


2IO  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

emergencies  much  depending  on  him ;    then  she  will 
call  him  back  to  it,  to  keep  him  there  till  he  dies. 

No  more  impressive  memorials  of  this  Father  of 
Massachusetts  survive  than  the  revelations  of  his  inner 
man  in  seasons  of  outward  infelicity.  It  was  in  the 
course  of  1643,  when,  as  we  nave  seen,  his  experience 
was  so  vexed  on  the  surface,  that  out  of  a  full  heart 
brought  to  overflow  by  his  daughter  Mary's  recent 
death,  and  in  thought  of  his  own  waning  years,  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  his  oldest  son,  —  more  like  a  brother 
to  him  than  a  son,  —  a  large  fragment  of  which  is 
preserved  in  Mather's  "  Magnalia,"  that  opens  a  clear 
glimpse  into  the  life  he  was  the  while  living  with  him- 
self. We  grudge  to  omit  a  word  of  it,  but  must  be 
content  with  passages. 

"  You  are  the  chief  of  two  families ;  I  had  by  your 
mother  [Mary  Forth]  three  sons  and  three  daughters,  and 
I  had  with  her  a  large  portion  of  outward  estate.  These 
now  are  all  gone  ;  mother  gone  ;  brethren  and  sisters 
gone  ;  you  only  are  left  to  see  the  vanity  of  these 
temporal  things,  and  learn  wisdom  thereby,  which  may 
be  of  more  use  to  you,  through  the  Lord's  blessing, 
than  all  that  inheritance  which  might  have  befallen  you  : 
and  for  which  this  may  stay  and  quiet  your  heart,  that 
God  is  able  to  give  you  more  than  this  ;  and  that  it  being 
spent  in  the  furtherance  of  his  work,  which  hath  here 
prospered  so  well,  through  his  power  hitherto,  you  and 
yours  may  certainly  expect  a  liberal  portion  in  the  prosper- 
ity and  blessing  thereof  hereafter;  and  the  rather,  be- 
cause it  was  not  forced  from  you  by  a  father's  power,  but 
freely  resigned  by  yourself,  out  of  a  loving  and  filial 
respect  unto  me,  and  your  own  readiness  unto  the  work 


LETTER   TO  HIS  ELDEST  SON.  211 

itself.  From  whence  as  I  often  do  take  occasion  to  bless 
the  Lord  for  you,  so  do  I  also  commend  you  and  yours 
to  his  fatherly  blessing,  for  a  plentiful  reward  to  be 
rendred  unto  you.  ...  If  you  weigh  things  aright,  and 
sum  up  all  the  turnings  of  divine  Providence  together, 
you  shall  find  great  advantage.  —  The  Lord  hath  brought 
us  to  a  good  land  ;  a  land,  where  we  enjoy  outward  peace 
and  liberty,  and  above  all,  the  blessings  of  the  gospel, 
without  the  burden  of  imposition  in  matters  of  religion. 
Many  thousands  there  are  who  would  give  great  estates 
to  enjoy  our  condition.  Labour,  therefore,  my  good  son, 
to  increase  your  thankfulness  to  God  for  all  his  mercies 
to  thee,  especially  for  that  he  hath  revealed  his  everlast- 
ing good  will  to  thee  in  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  He  it  was  who 
gave  thee  favour  in  the  eyes  of  all  with  whom  thou  hadst 
to  do,  both  by  sea  and  land ;  he  it  was  who  saved  thee 
in  all  perils,  and  he  it  is  who  hath  given  thee  a  gift  in  un- 
derstanding and  art.  .  .  .  In  all  the  exercise  of  your  gifts, 
and  improvement  of  your  talents,  have  an  eye  to  your 
master's  end,  more  than  to  your  own;  and  to  the  day  of 
your  account,  that  you  may  then  have  your  Quietus  est, 
even,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant !  But  my  last 
and  chief  request  to  you,  is,  that  you  be  careful  to  have 
your  children  brought  up  in  the  knowledge  and  fear  of 
God,  and  in  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  This 
will  give  you  the  best  comfort  of  them,  and  keep  them 
sure  from  any  want  or  miscarriage :  and  when  you  part 
from  them,  it  will  be  no  small  joy  to  your  soul,  that  you 
shall  meet  them  again  in  Heaven." 


212  JOHN  WINTHROP. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

WINTHROP'S   LAST  DEFENCE   OF  THE   CHARTER. 
(1644-1648.) 

On  no  previous  occasion  did  retirement  from  the 
chief  magistracy  bring  Winthrop  so  little  relief  of 
public  care  as  in  1 644 ;  for  the  agitation  of  the 
principal  questions  touching  interests  both  at  home 
and  abroad  which  were  ever  to  him  of  most  vital 
moment,  passed  at  that  point  into  new  phases. 
r*The  reconstruction  of  the  colony  legislature,  with 
enlarged  powers  to  the  commons,  did  not  give 
quietude  to  the  strife  about  government. \u\  party 
arose  to  challenge  the  title  of  the  magistrates  to 
exercise  authority  in  the  intermissions  of  the  Gen- 
eral CouftTjXThe  deputies  framed  and  adopted  a 
measure  providing  that  such  authority  devolve  on 
a  joint  committee  of  magistrates  and  deputies,  plus 
one  of  the  ministers)  This  the  magistrates  vetoed 
as  not  allowed  by  the  charter.  The  Court  being 
about  to  adjourn,  the  deputies  then  requested  the 
magistrates  to  abstain  from  acts  of  government  dur- 
ing the  recess.  Non  possumus,  they  replied ;  it 
will  not  be  right  for  us  to  do  so.  "Then,"  said 
Speaker  Hathorne  of  the  Lower  House,  "you  will 


THE  JEALOUS  COMMONS.  213 

not  be  obeyed ! "  The  threat  was  not  executed, 
for  the  magistrates  issued  orders  during  the  recess 
and  were  obeyed.  But  here  was  a  new  departure 
in  political  doctrine  and  a  new  critical  situation. 
It  was  the  resurrection  of,  Israel  Stoughton's  old 
heresy  of  ten  years  back^jjliat  the  power  of  the 
Court  of  Assistants  was  "  ministerial  according  to  the 
greater  vote  of  the  General  Court,  and  not  magis- 
terial according  to  their  own  discretion ;  "  not  now 
as  then,  however,  to  be  suppressed  by  the  strong 
handT) 

The  magistrates  were  put  on  their  defence  against 
the  charge  of  seeking  to  exalt  themselves  above  law, 
or  of  standing  for  the  arbitrary  principle  of  civil  rule. 
Winthrop,  —  at  all  times  a  conservative ;  a  champion, 
by  triple  conviction,  of  what  was  biblical,  of  what  was 
constitutional,  and  of  what  was  expedient,  of  the 
magisterial  prerogative,  on  every  such  occasion  —  flew 
to  arms,  that  is,  to  his  pen.  He  composed  a  treatise 
—  a  strong,  sinewy  piece  of  work,  as  well  as  a  long  — 
entitled  ^Arbitrary  Government  Described  and  the 
GovemmentTlof  the  Massachusetts  Vindicated  from 
that  Aspersion ;  "  a  copy  of  which  falling  into  posses- 
sion of  the  leaders  of  the  commons  was  read  by 
them,  not  to  their  satisfaction. 

Winthrop's  intention  was  to  present  it  u  orderly  " 
at  the  General  Court,  and  he  had  not  put  his  name 
to  it :  of  which  circumstance  advantage  was  taken 
to  anticipate  its  introduction  by  a  motion  for  its  cen- 
sure by  the  deputies  as  an  anonymous  screed  reflect- 
1  Page  128. 


214  JOHN  WIN  THRO  P. 

ing  injuriously  upon  them.  But  probably  through 
veneration  of  the  person  of  the  author,  of  whose 
identity  no  one  was  ignorant,  the  attempt  failed.  \  TJie 
Court  then  submitted  the  subject  in  debate  to  the 
elders,  whose  unanimous  opinion  was  that  the  argu- 
ment was  with  the  magistrates.  Upon  which  the 
reformers  surrendered  the  contest;  and,  for  once, 
conservatism  held  its  own.  1  Whatever  soreness  re- 
mained was  soon  healed,  except  in  the  case  of  As- 
sistants Bellingham  and  Saltonstall,  who  had  taken 
part  against  their  fellow- magistrates  and  were  on  the 
beaten  side.  They  naturally  were  much  exasperated 
by  the  issue,  and  showed  it.  Saltonstall  in  his  cha- 
grin openly  expressed  the  wish  never  to  hold  office 
again.  This  exhibition  of  temper  Winthrop  notes 
with  pain,  but  with  the  utmost  generosity  of  judg- 
ment. "  Such  as  .  .  .  had  not  well  known  the  per- 
sons," he  says,  "would  have  concluded  such  a  faction 
here  as  hath  been  usual  in  the  council  of  England 
and  other  states,  who  walk  by  politic  principles  only. 
But  these  gentlemen  were  such  as  feared  God,  and 
endeavoured  to  walk  by  the  rules  of  his  word  in  all 
their  proceedings,  so  as  it  might  be  conceived  in 
charity  that  they  walked  according  to  their  judg- 
ments and  conscience." 

But  while  this  gust  of  domestic  politics  was  blowing, 
fresh  questions  of  foreign  relations  had  to  be  met, 
upon  which  the  mind  of  the  colony  was  not  divided. 

These  questions,  as  they  concerned  England,  where 
now  were  two  governments,  —  the  king's  and  Parlia- 
ment's,—  though  less  dangerous,  were  more  difficult 


PARLIAMENT  INSTRUCTED.  215 

and  delicate  to  handle  than  ever  before.  The  forma- 
tion of  the  New  England  Confederacy  (1643)  seems 
to  have  called  the  attention  of  Parliament  to  the 
colonies  as  in  the  distraction  of  the  times  it  had  not 
till  then  been  called,  and  to  have  been  misliked  in 
that  quarter.  Very  shortly  after,  at  any  rate,  Parlia- 
ment created  a  Commission  for  the  Colonies  of  six 
peers  and  eighteen  commoners,  —  Earl  of  Warwick 
chairman,  —  and  armed  it  with  powers  similar  to  those 
before  vested  in  the  Lords  Commissioners,  —  powers 
that  would  prove  as  indigestible  to  New  England 
from  that  source  as  from  the  other. 

With  reference  to  the  struggle  going  on  in  the 
mother  country,  Massachusetts  occupied  no  equivo- 
cal position.  Her  sympathies  were  all  one  way. 
The  General  Court  of  May,  1644,  declared  openly 
for  Parliament,  and  made  adhesion  to  the  royal 
cause  an  offence  "of  a  high  nature  against  this 
commonwealth." 

But  events  soon  developed  what  that  meant, — 
rather  what  it  did  not  mean ;  for  when  in  the  course 
of  that  same  month  a  London  (Parliament)  ship,  full- 
armed,  demanded  and  received,  in  sight  of  all  Bos- 
ton looking  on  from  Windmill  Hill  (Copp's  Hill),  the 
surrender  of  a  Bristol  merchantman  (Bristol  held 
for  the  king)  lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbour,  Win- 
throp  —  Governor  Endicott,  who  lived  at  Salem,  not 
being  on  hand  —  immediately  sent  an  official  summons 
to  the  London  captain  to  appear  and  show  his  right 
to  make  such  a  seizure  there.  The  captain  exhibited 
a  commission  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  —  Winthrop 


2l6  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

copies  the  superscription  of  it :  Robertus  Comes 
Warwiciy  etc.,  magnus  Admirallus  Anglice,  etc.,  om- 
nibus cujuscunque  status  honoris^  etc.,  salutem, — 
authorizing  him  to  make  prize  in  all  places  what- 
soever of  vessels  bearing  the  king's  papers.  The 
deputy  required  him  to  carry  it  to  the  governor  at 
Salem,  where  the  magistrates  would  give  it  their 
attention,  and,  provisionally,  till  the  commissioners 
for  the  United  Colonies  should  meet,  judge  its  value. 

The  incident  made  a  great  stir.  Universal  as  the 
sympathy  for  Parliament  was,  the  view  prevailed  — 
the  elders  enforcing  it  in  sermons  —  that  a  liberty  had 
been  taken  with  Boston  harbour  that  was  wholly  in- 
admissible, and  that  the  captured  ship  must  be  re- 
stored to  its  owners.  No  commission  from  any  source 
can  supplant  our  charter,  by  which  we  alone  have 
admiralty  jurisdiction  of  these  ports  !  In  the  course 
of  ten  years  the  School  of  the  Bay  Colony  —  John 
Winthrop  instructor- in-chief —  has  thoroughly  mas- 
tered the  catechism  of  its  political  independence. 
After  a  very  careful  balancing,  however,  of  the  pros 
and  cons  in  the  present  case,  the  administration 
finally  thought  it  best,  under  all  the  circumstances,  to 
let  the  matter  go  as  it  was,  —  but  with  the  caveat  that  no 
precedent  was  thereby  established.  "  Parliament  has 
itself  taught  us  that  salus  populi  is  suprema  lex.''1  Let 
Parliament  understand  that  we  now  act  by  that  rule 
and  propose  to  do  so  hereafter,  ourselves  being  judges 
of  its  applicability  at  all  times. 

Parliament  soon  had  reason  to  know  that  this  was 
something  more  than  vaporing.     Four  months  later 


THE  HINGHAM  BUSINESS.  217 

another  London  ship  showing  her  teeth  in  the  harbour 
at  another  king's  ship,  Massachusetts)  after  warning, 
the  deputy-governor  in  absence  of  the  governor  again 
giving  orders,  fired  on  the  former,  —  a  shot  from  our 
shore  battery,  that  cut  her  rigging ;  had  her  captain 
returned  it,  M  we  had  resolved  to  have  taken  or  sunk 
him,"  —  and  sent  a  reinforcement  of  forty  soldiers  on 
board  the  latter ;  by  such  means  convincing  the  Lon- 
doner that  he  really  must  not  "  meddle  with  any  ship 
in  our  harbour."  The  question  of  Parliament's  au- 
thority in  New  England  was  to  come  up  presently  in 
other  shapes,  but  not  again  in  this. 

The  election  of  1645  replaced  Dudley  with  Endi- 
cott  as  governor,  but  left  Winthrop  where  he  was. 
His  second  term  now  as  deputy  was  more  unquiet  to 
him  than  the  first  had  been,  and  in  the  arena  of  home 
affairs.  For  this  year  (1645-46)  was  the  memorable 
year  of  the  Little  Speech  dwelt  upon  in  our  first  chap- 
ter. The  story  as  there  hinted  in  connection  with 
the  denouement  described,  needs  to  be  a  little  supple- 
mented ;  though  it  must  be  with  merest  indication  of 
the  facts  and  rigorous  suppression  of  details. 

The  militia  company  of  Hingham,  offended  at  the 
magistrates  for  imposing  on  them  —  without  swarrant, 
they  held  —  an  unacceptable  commanding  officer, 
had  mutinied ;  and  the  whole  town,  including  Peter 
Hobart  the  minister,  had  backed  them  in  their  mu- 
tiny. The  Court  of  Assistants  called  the  ringleaders 
to  account,  and  committed  them  for  trial.  Hingham 
thereupon  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  General  Court 
asking  it  to  inquire  if  that  committal,  together  with 


2l8  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

its  antecedents,  were  justly  within  bounds  of  the 
magisterial  discretion,  alleging  that  it  was  not.  This 
request  the  deputies  granted.  The  magistrates,  though 
ill-pleased  with  the  alacrity  of  the  deputies  in  the  case, 
also  granted  it,  provided  the  memorialists  would  for- 
mulate their  charges  and  name  the  magistrate  or  mag- 
istrates in  particular  against  whom  they  were  laid. 
Accordingly  they  named  the  deputy,  who  indeed  had 
appeared  in  the  front  of  the  affair  on  the  magistrates' 
side  from  the  start ;  and  the  inquiry  proceeded,  with 
what  results  and  closing  incidents  has  been  already 
related.  It  was  a  sharp  collision.  "  Thejjingham 
business  was  bad,"  says  the  colony  Record.  But 
once  more  the  magistrates  held  their  own.  \\X,  ap- 
pears, though,  to  have  been  a  sequel  to  the  fresh  dis- 
cussion of  their  prerogative  at  this  time,  that  order 
was  taken  by  the  General  Court  soon  after  to  add  a 
considerable  number  of  new  laws  to  the  Body  of  Lib- 
erties, by  which  the  range  of  administrative  discretion 
was  in  several  particulars  contracted^ 

The  Little  Speech,  which  must  have  lingered  in  the 
thoughts  of  all  who  heard  it,  —  an  audience  represen- 
tative of  the  whole  colony,  —  probably  bore  some 
part  in  procuring  Winthrop's  restoration  to  the  head 
of  the  state  the  following  spring  (1646),  where  he 
would  continue  the  short  remainder  of  his  life.  But 
the  other  reasons  —  the  customary  ones  —  of  his  re- 
call to  that  place  were  not  wanting.  The  supreme 
political  interest  of  the  commonwealth,  the  liberty  of 
self-government,  was  again  menaced ;  and  from  a 
strange  quarter,  —  from  its  own  hearthstone.  The  gov- 


THE  DISSENTERS'  CABAL.  219 

ernor's  last  service  is  required  for  its  defence,  and 
much  of  his  last  strength.  The  residue  of  the  Journal 
is  largely  occupied  with  the  story  of  how  the  indepen- 
dence of  Massachusetts,  hitherto  his  peculiar  charge, 
was,  in  the  final  attempt  upon  it  in  his  day,  under  his 
leadership  asserted  and  maintained ;  in  what  circum- 
stances cannot  be  more  concisely  told  than  in  his 
own  language  :  — 

"  One  Mr.  William  Vassall,  sometimes  one  of  the  as- 
sistants of  the  Massachusetts,  but  now  of  Scituate  in 
Plimouth  jurisdiction  [in  Plymouth  jurisdiction,  but  ad- 
jacent to  mutinous  Hingham,  where  elder  Hobart  and 
others  are  in  a  chafed  and  restive  condition  since  their 
late  defeat ;  suggestive  of  conference  across  the  border], 
a  man  of  a  busy  and  factious  spirit,  and  always  opposite 
to  the  civil  governments  of  this  country  and  the  way  of 
our  churches,  had  practised  with  such  as  were  not  mem- 
bers of  our  churches  to  take  some  course,  first  by  petition- 
ing the  Courts  of  the  Massachusetts  and  of  Plimouth,  and 
(if  that  succeeded  not)  then  to  the  parliament  of  England, 
that  the  distinctions  which  were  maintained  here,  both  in 
civil  and  church  estate,  might  be  taken  away,  and  that 
we  might  be  wholly  governed  by  the  laws  of  England ; 
and  accordingly  a  petition  was  drawn  up  to  the  parlia- 
ment, pretending  that  they  being  freeborn  subjects  of 
England,  were  denied  the  liberty  of  subjects  both  in 
church  and  commonwealth,  themselves  and  their  children 
debarred  from  the  seals  of  the  covenant,  except  they  would 
submit  to  such  a  way  of  entrance  and  church  covenant  as 
their  consciences  would  not  admit,  and  take  such  a  civil 
oath  as  would  not  stand  with  their  oath  of  allegiance,  or 
else  they  must  be  deprived  of  all  power  and  interest  in 
civil  affairs,  and  were  subjected  to  an  arbitrary  govern- 
ment and  extrajudicial  proceedings,  etc." 


220  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

The  assault  upon  the  charter  —  for  that  it  was  — 
outlined  in  this  statement,  as  waged  in  both  Englands, 
extended  over  a  large  part  of  Winthrop's  tenth  and 
eleventh  gubernatorial  terms.  Evidently,  on  his  own 
showing,  it  had  the  advantage  to  begin  with  of  a 
great  plausibility  in  its  argument.  It  had  other  ad- 
vantages. They  who  joined  in  it  took  counsel  of 
opportunity.  Two  years  ago  Laud  had  followed  Straf- 
ford to  the  block,  and  Presbyterianism  reigned  in 
England  in  his  stead,  or  was  on  the  point  of  reigning 
as  it  seemed ;  and  between  Laud's  Episcopacy  and 
Parliament's  Presbyterianism,  New  England  Congre- 
gationalists  had  nothing  to  choose.  Furthermore,  a 
quite  new  theory  of  the  constitutional  relations  of 
Massachusetts  to  the  English  government  was  affirmed, 
by  which  every  privilege  heretofore  claimed  as  the 
gift  of  her  charter  was  entirely  swept  away.  By 
fiction  of  law,  the  territory  comprised  in  the  original 
"""grant  to  the  Bay  Company  was  held  as  of  the  manor 
of  East  Greenwich.  The  colony,  therefore,  was  con- 
structively represented  in  Parliament  by  members 
of  the  borough  in  which  the  manor  of  East  Green- 
wich lay,  and  so  was  in  Parliament's  jurisdiction. 
Nor  had  it  been  in  the  power  of  the  crown,  inde- 
pendently of  Parliament,  to  release  it  from  that 
jurisdiction. 

For  an  item  of  further  special  advantage,  prime- 
mover  William  VassalPs  brother  was  on  the  parlia- 
mentary Commission  for  the  Government  of  Foreign 
Plantations,  and  was  with  all  his  heart  favourable  to 
the  hostile  design. 


THE  DISSENTERS'   CABAL.  221 

The  programme  of  its  attempted  execution,  re- 
capitulated by  Winthrop,  was  carried  out.  Vassall 
procured  the  presentation  at  the  General  Court  of  a 
Remonstrance  and  Humble  Petition,  subscribed  by 
citizens  of  Massachusetts  of  both  Episcopal  and 
Presbyterian  sympathies,  —  Dr.  Robert  Child  most 
prominent  among  them,  —  praying  for  relief  from 
their  religious  and  civil  disabilities  ;  and  avowing  their 
purpose,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  invoke  the  interposition 
of  Parliament  in  their  behalf.  Copies  of  this  paper 
were  scattered  throughout  the  colony  and  beyond,  to 
notify  all  malcontents  of  the  enterprise  on  hand.  The 
General  Court,  of  course,  did  refuse,  and  at  the  same 
time  published  a  Declaration  setting  forth  in  extenso 
—  work  of  the  governor's  pen  undoubtedly;  fitted  for 
perusal  in  England  —  their  reason  and  right  therein. 
The  next  news  being  that  some  of  the  petitioners 
were  off  for  Westminster,  the  General  Court  required  to 
see  them  j  but  no,  they  were  done  with  the  General 
Court ;  they  appealed  their  cause  to  a  higher  tribunal. 
Arrest,  trial,  and  fines  followed.  The  news  being 
presently  again  that  certain  of  the  offenders  —  chiefly 
Dr.  Child  —  were  planning  another  start  for  West- 
minster, a  seizure  of  persons  and  papers  brought  to 
light  the  boasted  appeal,  all  in  shape,  addressed  in 
due  form  to  the  Commission  for  the  Government  of 
Foreign  Plantations,  reciting  the  oppressions  which 
English  subjects  suffered  in  Massachusetts,  and  the 
treason  with  which  Massachusetts  was  rife  ;  entreating 
that  a  general  governor  might  be  appointed  to  reform 
so  great  abuses. 


222  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

The  incensed  Court  added  heavier  fines  to  those 
before  imposed,  but  recognized  that  something  beside 
dealing  with  ill-affected  individuals  at  home  was  be- 
coming necessary.  In  view  of  the  inevitable  bruit  of 
all  these  matters  in  England,  somebody,  it  was  felt, 
must  go  thither  to  stand  in  the  way  of  mischiefs  pos- 
sible to  come  of  it. 

In  fact,  this  occasion  apart,  there  was  already  rea- 
son why  Massachusetts  ought  to  have  a  suitable  agent 
in  attendance  on  her  interests  in  England.  For  at 
that  very  time  Samuel  Gorton,  whose  story  this 
memoir  may  omit,  was  clamorously  besieging  the 
Foreign  Plantations  Commission  to  overturn  sen- 
tences of  the  General  Court,  and  of  the  New  England 
Confederacy  as  well,  for  the  righting  of  his  wrongs ; 
and  there  were  signs  that  he  was  in  danger  of  suc- 
ceeding. Who,  then,  should  be  sent  over  to  foil 
these  devices?  The  General  Court  fixed  on  Edward 
Winslow  of  Plymouth  —  of  singular  capacity  for  the 
business,  and  particularly  well  known  to  the  parlia- 
mentary commissioners  —  as  the  man  to  employ. 
But  the  query  was  raised  outside,  if  it  were  not  better 
to  send  a  citizen  or  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  — 
for  instance,  the  governor,  accompanied,  perhaps,  by 
one  of  our  most  eminent  ministers.  The  idea  at  first 
met  much  approval.  Obviously  the  governor  was  the 
man  of  all  men  for  such  work,  —  the  situation  being 
so  critical,  and  everything  for  us  depending  on  the 
way  things  should  turn.  Upon  second  thoughts,  how- 
ever, that  would  not  do.  The  governor,  once  in 
England,  no  effort  would  be  spared  to  keep  him  there. 


THE  DISSENTERS'   CABAL.  223 

Hugh  Peter  —  himself  enlisted  in  the  Revolution  — 
had  lately,  as  the  colony  was  aware,  been  doing  his 
best  to  convince  him  that  the  Lord's  cause  on  the  old 
soil  was  in  need  of  him.  Again,  a  good  many  "  were 
on  the  wing  "  as  it  was,  and  for  the  chief  of  the 
State  to  take  wing  just  now  would  be  very  unseason- 
able. And  then,  with  this  revolutionary  movement 
alive,  who  could  tell  what  might  not  happen  to  Mas- 
sachusetts in  his  absence?  Mr.  Winthrop  must  not 
go,  after  all ;  let  it  be  Mr.  Winslow. 

This  conclusion  was  wholly  agreeable  to  his  ex- 
cellency, who  says :  "  The  governor  was  very  averse 
to  a  voyage  into  England,  yet  he  declared  himself 
ready  to  accept  the  service  if  he  should  be  called  to 
it,  though  he  were  then  fifty-nine  years  of  age  wanting 
one  month ;  but  he  was  very  glad  when  he  saw  the 
mind  of  the  Lord  to  be  otherwise." 

He  did  his  part  by  draughting  the  papers  (Address 
to  the  Commissioners,  Instructions  to  Agent ;  in 
both  matter  and  style  they  bear  throughout  his 
legible  mark)  with  which  Winslow,  late  in  1646, 
departed  on  his  mission,  —  strong,  lucid  papers,  in 
which  once  more  he  goes  over  the  grounds  whereon 
Massachusetts  maintains  that  her  charter  is  suchf" a 
free  donation  of  absolute  government  "  as  puts  itTmF* 
of  the  power  of  any  authority  anywhere  to  revise  her 
judicial  actsTl  Appeals  like  that  of  Gorton  have  no 
legal  quality~whatsoever ;  therefore  she  will  decline  to 
contest  them. 

But  with  the  constitutional  argument  the  argu- 
mentum  ad  hotninem  is  freely  mingled.     May  there 


224  JOHN  W1NTHR0P. 

be  no  cause  —  he  pleads  —  for  those  who  come  after 
us  to  say  :  — 

"  England  sent  our  fathers  forth  with  happy  liberties, 
which  they  enjoyed  many  years,  notwithstanding  all  the 
enmity  and  opposition  of  the  prelacy  and  other  potent  ad- 
versaries. How  came  we,  then,  to  lose  them  under  the 
favour  and  protection  of  that  state,  in  such  a  season  when 
England  itself  recovered  its  own  ?  In  freto  viximus,  in 
fiortu  morijnur.  .  , .  Our  humble  petition  to  your  honors 
is,  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  continue  your  favourable 
aspect  upon  these  poor  infant  plantations,  that  we  may 
still  rejoice  and  bless  our  God  under  your  shadow,  and  be 
there  still  nourished  (tanquam  calore  et  rore  ccelesti  /)  and 
while  God  owns  us  for  a  people  of  his,  he  will  own  our 
poor  prayers  for  you  and  your  goodness  towards  us,  for  an 
abundant  recompense." 

Winslow  managed  the  trust  confided  to  him  with 
competent  skill,  and  carried  his  points  completely. 
Gorton  was  nonsuited,  as  was  also  Dr.  Child,  who 
closely  followed  Winslow  to  England,  and  made  a 
great  noise  there  with  his  complaints.  The  former 
subsequently  returned  furnished  with  certain  requests 
and  recommendations  in  his  behalf  from  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  to  the  General  Court,  but  distinctly  no 
commands.  The  Commissioners  wTrote  over  all  their 
signatures  protesting  their  intent  not  "  to  encourage 
any  appeals  from  your  justice,  nor  to  restrain  the 
bounds  of  your  jurisdiction  to  a  narrower  compass 
than  is  held  forth  by  your  letters-patent,  but  to  leave 
you  with  all  that  freedom  and  latitude  that  may  in 
any  respect  be  duly  claimed  by  you." 


THE   CAMBRIDGE  SYNOD.  225 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  on  this  as  on 
other  occasions  the  conjunction  of  opportune  circum- 
stances contributed  to  the  event.  As  usual,  the  stars 
in  their  courses  fought  against  the  adversaries  of  the 
colony.  "  As  for  those  who  went  over  to  procure  us 
trouble,"  says  the  Journal,  "  God  met  with  them  all." 
While  Winslow  was  anxiously  labouring,  Cromwell's 
army  declared  for  religious  toleration,  Pride's  Purge 
took  place,  and  the  great  Presbyterian  hope  fell  to 
the  ground ;  which  upset  was  a  providence  of  good 
fortune  to   Massachusetts  at  that  moment. 

The  governor's  view  of  the  extreme  gravity  of  the 
situation  developed  by  the  Dissenters'  Cabal,  as  we 
may  term  it,  and  the  gratitude  with  which  he  recurred 
to  the  issue  of  it,  are  curiously  exhibited  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  an  incident  which  happened  a  year  after 
at  a  session  of  the  famous  Cambridge  Synod.  This 
synod  was,  by  the  way,  we  pause  to  note,  itself  an 
outcome  of  that  plot.  It  had  discovered  to  the  col- 
onists that  with  their  rule  of  the  strict  autonomy  of 
each  separate  congregation  as  hitherto  followed,  they 
were  not  prepared  to  resist  ecclesiastical  aggression. 
They  lacked  a  basis  of  co-operation,  —  a  defect  to 
be  repaired.  Hence  the  Synod;  and  the  Platform 
of  Discipline,  matured,  with  amplest  deliberation, 
which  gave  the  shape  it  still  essentially  bears  to 
the  polity  of  what  has  been  appropriately  called  the 
Mother  Church  of  New  England. 

But   to  our  incident,   which  occurred  during  the 
opening  sermon  of  an   adjourned   assembly  of  the 
Synod,  Mr.  Allen  of  Dedham  being  preacher :  — 
l5 


226  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

11  It  fell  out,  about  the  midst  of  his  sermon,  there  came 
a  snake  into  the  seat,  where  many  of  the  elders  sate  be- 
hind the  preacher.  It  came  in  at  the  door  where  people 
stood  thick  upon  the  stairs.  Divers  of  the  elders  shifted 
from  it,  but  Mr.  Thomson,  one  of  the  elders  of  Brain- 
tree,  (a  man  of  much  faith,)  trode  upon  the  head  of  it, 
and  so  held  it  with  his  foot  and  staff  with  a  small  pair  of 
grains,  until  it  was  killed.  This  being  so  remarkable, 
and  nothing  falling  out  but  by  divine  providence,  it  is  out 
of  doubt  the  Lord  discovered  somewhat  of  his  mind  in 
it.  The  serpent  is  the  devil ;  the  synod,  the  representa- 
tive of  the  churches  of  Christ  in  New  England.  The 
devil  had  formerly  and  lately  attempted  their  disturbance 
and  dissolution ;  but  their  faith  in  the  seed  of  the  woman 
overcame  him  and  crushed  his  head." 

Not  the  quaint  telling  alone  assigns  the  scene  to 
the  seventeenth  century  instead  of  the  nineteenth. 


DEATH  OF  MARGARET.  22  J 


! 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  OLD   GOVERNOR'S   CLOSING   DAYS. 
(1648- 1 649.) 

While  the  solicitudes  inspired  by  the  final  jeopardy 
to  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts  he  would  be  called 
to  witness  were  as  yet  unrelieved  and  weighty  upon 
him,  the  governor  soon  after  entering  on  his  eleventh 
term  had  been  visited  with  sorrow  unspeakable  in 
his  own  house.  When  in  the  summer  of  1647,  he 
sets  down  in  the  Journal  the  sad  news,  which  comes 
very  near  to  him,  of  the  death,  by  a  prevailing  epi- 
demic,—  something  in  the  nature  of  La  Grippe, 
apparently,  —  of  his  old  and  most  dear  friend 
Thomas  Hooker,  of  Hartford,  he  little  thinks  how 
much  nearer  and  heavier  a  stroke  is  impending.  But 
the  next  time  he  takes  his  pen  it  is  to  write :  — 

"  In  this  sickness  the  governour's  wife,  daughter  of  Sir 
John  Tindal,  Knight,  left  this  world  for  a  better,  being 
about  fifty-six  years  of  age:  a  woman  of  singular  virtue, 
prudence,  modesty,  and  piety,  and  specially  beloved  and 
honored  of  all  the  country." 

Margaret  died  June  14,  1647,  having  been  but  a 
few  hours  ill.  It  was  twenty-nine  years  since  she 
became  the  bride  of  the  lord  of  Groton  Manor  j  go- 


228  JOHN   WINTHROP. 

ing  on  sixteen  years  since  her  arrival  in  New  Eng- 
land, —  anticipating  which  her  husband  had  said,  "  Oh, 
how  it  refresheth  my  heart  to  think  that  I  shall  yet 
again  see  thy  sweet  face  in  the  land  of  the  living ; 
that  lovely  countenance  that  I  have  so  much  de- 
lighted in  and  beheld  with  so  great  content." 
Through  all  those  years,  in  sunshine  and  in  shadow,  she 
has  been  to  John  Winthrop  everything  a  wife  might 
be ;  his  incomparable  benefactor,  —  benefactor,  too, 
albeit  a  still  one,  of  the  cause  he  has  travailed  in,  — 
his  chief  good  angel  of  faith  and  patience,  we  must 
suppose  ;  entitled  as  truly  as  any  to  rank  a  New 
England  Worthy.  Of  the  thoughts  with  which,  alone 
with  his  dead  and  with  his  memories,  he  now  looks  on 
that  sweet  face,  we  may  not  speak. 

His  sons  are  most  of  them,  perhaps  all,  away  from 
home,  though  Adam  and  Deane  will  probably  come 
in  time  for  the  burial.  John  is  in  Connecticut,  where 
he  is  governor ;  Samuel  in  the  West  Indies ;  Stephen 
in  England  at  the  wars,  to  whom  are  sent  his 
mother's  ring  and  Bible  for  keepsakes.  The  letters 
of  the  last  two,  received  by  and  by,  remain  to  testify 
how  they  honoured  both  mother  and  father.  "  Greife 
cuts  me  offe,"  says  Samuel,  "  that  I  cannot  write 
either  what  nor  as  I  would." 

The  governor  returned  from  Margaret's  grave  to 
go  on  his  way  and  about  his  duties  as  before,  a  little 
more  bent  it  may  be,  and  a  little  less  firm  of  step,  but 
with  good  heart  and  courage  still  for  service  of  the 
state.  It  is  six  months  since  Winslow  sailed.  He  is 
in  London  face  to  face  with  the  enemy,  and  word  of 


PUBLIC  OUTLOOK  HOPEFUL.  229 

how  it  fares  with  him  is  anxiously  awaited.  When 
the  word  comes  —  such  as  was  hoped  for,  it  proves  — 
a  full  relation  is  committed  to  the  Journal,  with  the 
customary  diligent  transcription  of  the  official  docu- 
ments essential  to  the  record.  The  closing  sessions 
of  the  Cambridge  Synod,  Confederacy  transactions, 
Dutch  correspondence,  also  have  due  mention  an- 
swerable to  their  importance.  On  the  whole,  though, 
the  volume  of  the  Journal  perceptibly  dwindles.  The 
miscellany  of  minor  occurrences  is  short  of  its  wonted 
measure.  But  this,  perhaps,  is  in  part  owing  to  the  fre- 
quent letters  he  is  writing  to  John,  Jr.,  which  are  alive 
as  ever  with  interest  in  contemporary  matters,  lesser 
and  greater,  near  and  far,  —  Commencement  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  the  copper- mine  Mr.  Endicott  has  found  on 
his  land ;  the  bog-iron  ore  smelting  experiment  at  Sau- 
gus  (Lynn),  which  promises  well;  items  of  marine 
intelligence  ;  state  of  the  missionary  work  among  the 
Indians  ;  latest  accounts,  as  of  one  thoroughly  posted, 
of  English  events,  particularly  of  the  Scottish  campaign 
in  which  Stephen  is  fighting,  etc.,  etc.  It  would, 
indeed,  seem  that  a  few  months  further  on,  after  his 
twelfth  inauguration,  with  his  official  load,  at  the  point 
where  its  pressure  had  been  sorest,  lightened  by  Par- 
liament's answer  of  peace,  the  governor  found  him- 
self in  a  manner  set  free.  He  could  give  more 
attention  than  he  had  for  some  while  of  late  been 
able  to  do,  to  many  things  belonging  to  the  public 
welfare. 

With  her  liberties  secure,  it  might  now  be  hoped 
permanently,  and  her  people  united  as  hardly  ever 


230  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

before,  why  should  it  not  be  that  Massachusetts  was 
on  the  threshold  of  better  days  than  any  she  had 
known?  In  Old  England  and  in  New  England,  by 
the  wonder-working  of  God's  Providence,  the  omens 
of  the  time  were  propitious.  The  governor  felt  his 
spirit  freshen.  Spite  of  his  years  and  some  touches 
of  infirmity,  there  was  yet  life  before  him.  Of  such 
a  thought  moving  in  him,  one  sign,  so  at  least  it  is 
permitted  to  divine,  was  that  about  a  year  after 
Margaret  left  him  —  must  it  be  told  ?  —  he  married 
again.  But  the  hospitalities  of  the  chief  magistrate's 
house  much  needed  a  presiding  lady,  and  the  master  of 
that  house  at  his  solitary  fireside  was  very  lonesome. 
Lonesome  also,  it  appears,  was  Mistress  Martha  Coyt- 
more,  three  years  the  widow  of  Thomas  Coytmore, 
of  Charlestown,  sister  of  Increase  Nowell,  long  the 
colony's  secretary.  At  all  events,  and  whether  we 
quite  like  it  or  not,  they  were  married ;  and  the  gov- 
ernor, like  patriarch  Jacob,  had  a  son  born  to  him  in 
his  old  age. 

But  the  end  of  his  pilgrimage  was  not  far  off.  A 
fever  in  the  autumn  of  1648  reduced  his  vigour, 
sapped  already  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  twenty  over- 
tasked years ;  and  when,  the  following  spring,  a  sec- 
ond attack  supervened,  he  had  not  strength  left  to 
resist  it.  The  intelligence  that  his  sickness  was  like 
to  be  his  last,  smote  the  heart  of  the  colony  with  uni- 
versal distress.  "The  whole  church  fasted  as  well 
as  prayed  for  him."  At  a  public  service  of  interces- 
sion in  his  behalf,  Mr.  Cotton,  preaching  from  the. 
text,  "  When  they  were  sick  I  humbled  myself  with 


LAST  SICKNESS  AND  DEATH.  231 

fasting;  I  behaved  myself  as  though  he  had  been  my 
friend  or  brother;  I  bowed  down  heavily  as  one 
that  mourned  for  his  mother'1''  (Ps.  xxxv.  13,  14,  as 
cited  by  Mather),  he  said,  with  what  recollections 
rising  in  his  soul  we  know  :  "  Upon  this  occasion  we 
are  now  to  attend  to  this  duty  for  a  governour  .  .  . 
who  has  been  unto  us  as  a  brother ;  not  usurping  au- 
thority over  the  church  ;  often  speaking  his  advice,  and 
often  contradicted,  even  by  young  men,  and  some  of 
low  degree ;  yet  not  replying,  but  offering  satisfaction 
also  when  any  supposed  offences  have  arisen ;  a  gov- 
ernour who  has  been  unto  us  as  a  mother,  parent-like 
distributing  his  goods  to  brethren  and  neighbours  at 
his  first  coming;  and  gently  bearing  our  infirmities 
without  taking  notice  of  them."  And  so  saying  he 
spoke  the  thought  uppermost  in  every  breast.  All 
were  his  friends  now.  But  the  governor's  hour  was 
come.  He  fell  asleep,  "  in  the  great  consolations  of 
God,"  March  26,  1649,  m  ms  sixty-second  year. 

The  funeral  was  delayed  till  John  could  come  from 
Connecticut.  It  was  to  be  so  ordered  —  as  said  the 
summons,  dated  "  your  father's  parlor,"  despatched  by 
fleet-footed  Indian  messenger,  the  ever  troublesome 
Bellingham  its  first  signer  —  "  that  it  may  appeare  of 
what  precious  account  &  desert  he  hath  ben,  &  how 
blessed  his  memoriall."  It  took  place  April  3,  being 
conducted  "  with  great  solemnity  and  honour,"  both 
civic  and  military.  The  place  of  interment  was  what 
is  now  called  the  King's  Chapel  Burying-ground,  — 
the  spot  to  be  seen  at  this  day. 

The  death  of  Winthrop  produced  a  profound  sen- 


232  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

sation  throughout  the  country.  Massachusetts  over- 
flowed with  sorrow  and  with  tears.  It  was  in  all 
quarters  recognized  that  not  alone  the  Man  of  that 
colony,  but  the  Man  of  the  United  Colonies  had  fallen. 
Peter  Stuyvesant  even,  governor  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands, declared  himself  and  his  people  partakers  in 
the  lamentation  of  the  common  loss. 

Our  story  is  now  ended.  We  have  little  to  add  in 
the  way  of  reflections.  What  manner  of  person  John 
Winthrop  was,  what  the  mind  that  was  in  him,  what 
the  part  he  acted  in  his  time  and  place,  we  have 
aimed  to  supply  our  readers  the  means  of  judging. 
His  public  statues  in  Boston  and  in  the  National 
Capital  present  him  with  the  Holy  Bible  in  one  hand 
and  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts  in  the  other.  No 
emblematic  expression  could  be  more  true.  Without 
question  he  was  primarily  a  man  of  religion.  To 
himself  the  main  purport  of  the  work  he  wrought  was_ 
religious.  In  his  eyes  Massachusetts  was  ever,  before 
all  things  else,  a  Church.  The  State  was  for  the  sake  of 
the  Church,  incident  and  subordinate  to  it.  And  this 
probably  is  the  reason  why  he  so  quietly  accepted  and 
adjusted  himself  to  changes  in  the  interior  civil  polity 
of  the  commonwealth  that  were  adverse  to  his  judg- 
ment. They  concerned  the  secondary  interest.  While 
in  his  political  principles  he  was  liberal  in  that  large 
sense  in  which  Puritanism  was  liberal,  in  his  practical 
view  of  government,  as  between  aristocracy  and  de- 
mocracy he  inclined  to  the  former.  Yet  his  temper 
was  such  as..tQ..make.,iiim  a  potent  mediator  between 


THE  STORY  ENDED.  233 

the  aristocratic  and  democratic  elements  that  were 
ever  in  conflict  around  him.  By  the  moderating  in- 
fluence of  his  self-control,  rTulmlity,J^o!rslnte"r^tBdness, 
patriotism,  the  strife  of  rival  parties  was  again  and 
again  so  restrained  as  to  save  the  State  from  serious 
detriment.  In  this  respect  he  was  a  prototype  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  The  particular  service  with  which, 
above  all  his  contemporaries,  he  stands  identified  is 
that  of  the  defence  of  the  Charter.  Which  is  to  say 
that  he  was  the  pre-eminent  representative  in  the 
Massachusetts  colony  of  the  idea  of  independent 
self-government. 

Cotton  Mather  for  the  last  word  of  his  eulogy. of  him, 
adapts  and  applies  to  him  a  translation  of  the  Greek  of 
Josephus  "  about  Nehemiah  the  governor  of  Israel." 

VIR  FUIT  INDOLE   BONUS,  AC  JUSTUS  : 
ET  POPULARIUM   GLORIA  AMANTISSIMUS  : 

QUIBUS   ETERNUM    RELIQUIT   MONUMENTUM, 
Novanglorum  moznia. 

Novanglorutn  moenia,  —  the  walls  of  New  England  ! 
These  were  the  foundations  on  which  his  chief  labour 
was  spent,  —  foundations  deep-laid,  indestructible,  on 
which  a  mightier  Commonwealth  than  he  could  dream 
was  in  later  times  to  rise  ;  a  free  nation,  of  which  he 
above  all  who  bore  the  burden  of  its  first  planting  was 
thus  a  Maker.  The  product  of  the  best  in  the  gener- 
ations behind,  he  was  the  prophet  of  the  best  in  the 
generations  before.  Could  he,  from  his  dying  bed, 
have  looked  forward  fifty  years,  he  would  have  felt  that 
his  life  had  failed.  Could  he  have  looked  forward  a 
hundred  years,  and  have  heard  young  Sam  Adams,  in 


234  JOHN  WINTHROP. 

his  Master's  oration  at  Harvard,  inquire  whether  it 
Be  Lawful  to  Resist  the  Supreme  Magistrate  if  the 
Commonwealth  Cannot  otherwise  be  Preserved,  and 
have  seen  all  that  in  the  next  fifty  years  was  to  follow  ; 
could  he  have  beheld  the  face  of  Jonathan  Trumbull 
of  Connecticut  flushing  and  brightening  with  a  new 
inspiration  of  courage,  as  in  the  time-yellowed  pages 
of  the  Journal  he  read  the  tale  of  what  in  a  former 
day  had  on  these  shores  been  dared  in  the  cause  of 
free  government,  he,  would  have  known  that  his 
life  had  not  failed.  ^Fgr  of  the  American  spirit  of 
Liberty  through  which  American  Independence  was 
finally  achieved,  is  it  aught  less  than  true  to  say 
that  it  wa>tthe  spirit  of  John  Winthrop  risen  from 
the  dead?  \ 


INDEX. 


ACADIE,  204. 

Adams,  Samuel,  233. 

Agawam,  see  Ipswich. 

"Ambrose,"  the,  51,  57. 

Antigua,  island  of,  25. 

Antinomian  Controversy,  148-158; 
its  origin,  149;  its  tenets,  149; 
meaning  of  the  term  as  applied 
to  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  followers, 
150;  Winthrop  a  mediator  in, 
156;  its  crisis,  156;  its  results, 
162-167. 

"  Arbella,"  the,  51,  57,  59,  61. 

Astoria,  167. 


Bacon,  19. 

Beacon  Hill,  124. 

Bellingham,  Richard,  6,  192,  199, 
209,  214. 

Bewett,  Hugh,  t68. 

Blackstone,  William,  82-83,  119. 

"  Blessing  of  the  Bay,"  the,  88. 

Block  Island,  146. 

Board  of  Assistants,  106-107. 

Body  of  Liberties,  the,  193,  218. 

Boston,  first  settlement  at,  82-83  > 
its  fortifications,  99,  101,  123  ; 
its  reception  of  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
141 ;  its  sympathy  with  the  Anti- 
nomian doctrines,  152-156;  in 
a  state  of  great  excitement,  155, 


159-162,  165-167 ;  formation  of 
the  New  England  Confederacy 
at,  201,  202 ;  Salem  commer- 
cially jealous  of,  207,  208. 

Boston  Common,  the,  126. 

Bradford,  Governor,  92,  109-111. 

Bradstreet,  Simonx  6. 

Brewster,  Mr.,  109. 

Browne,  John,  74,  76,  119. 

Browne,  Samuel,  74,  76,  119. 

Buckingham,  Duke  of,  36. 

Burleigh,  Captain,  58. 


Cambridge,  formerly  Newtown, 

95,  181,  184. 
"  Cambridge     Agreement,"     the, 

35-36,  42. 
Cambridge   Synod,   the,  225-226, 

229. 
Cambridge  University,  14. 
Canonicus,  172. 
Castle  Island,  122^  123,  137,  141- 

142,  206. 
Charles  River,  93,  99. 
Charles  I.,  20,  38,  39,  197. 
Charles  II.,  181. 
Charlestown,  97 ;  first  settlement  at, 

63  ;  Winthrop  removes  to,  66  ; 

first  church  at,   72  ;    first    law 

court,    yj;    its    lack    of    good 

water,  82  ;  fortified,  123. 


236 


INDEX. 


Charnise,  D'Aulnay,  204-208. 
Chickatabot,  Chief,  84,  86. 
Child,  Dr.  Robert,  221. 
"Christian  Experience,"  the,  15, 

16-17,  156-158. 
Church      of      England,    74,     75, 

133- 
Clap,  Captain  Roger,  quoted,  67, 

77- 

Clopton,  Sir  Hugh,  23. 

Clopton,  Thomasine,  second  wife 
of  John  Winthrop,  23 ;  her 
death,  23. 

Coddington,  William,  51,  54,  126, 
159. 

"Collection  of  Original  Papers," 
161. 

Commission  for  the  Colonies,  the, 
215,  220,  22T,  222. 

Conant,  Roger,  38. 

Conant's  Island,  107-108. 

Concord,  174. 

Congregationalism,  73,  220. 

Connecticut,  emigration  from 
Massachusetts  to,  144-146  ;  the 
Pequot  War,  169-172  ;  the  New 
England  Confederation,  201- 
202. 

Copp's  Hill,  215. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  6,  126,  127, 
I43>145»  153.  159.194,  198,203; 
preaches  the  farewell  sermon  to 
Winthrop's  company  on  leaving 
England,  50,  112  ;  rector  of  St. 
Botolph's,  112-113;  comes  to 
Massachusetts,  112;  a  sympa- 
thizer with  aristocracy,  113; 
enters  politics  in  Massachusetts, 
114,  116;  greatly  admired  by 
Ann  Hutchinson,  149,  152;  his 
last  tribute  to  Winthrop,  230- 
231. 

"Council for  New  England,"  the, 
36,  138-139. 


Court  of  Assistants,  the,  77-78,  96, 
116,  128,  134,  213,  217. 

Court  of  Elections,  80,  97,  106, 
114,  127, 137. 141,  155-156,  174, 
200. 

Coytmore,  Martha,  the  fourth  wife 
of  John  Winthrop,  230 ;  bears 
him  a  son,  230. 

Coytmore,  Thomas,  230. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  58,  120,  122; 
first  governor  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  Company,  39 ;  the 
prime  mover  in  transferring  the 
Company's  Charter  to  New 
England,  41-42;  resigns  his 
office  of  Governor,  48. 

Cromwell,    Oliver,   14,   180,    194, 


Davenport,  Rev.  John,  162, 194. 

Daye,  Stephen,  181. 

Dorchester,  66,  84 ;  first  church  at, 
72,  74;  fortified,  123;  its  migra- 
tion to  Connecticut,  144-166. 

Downing,  Emanuel,  40,  120,  182. 

Downing,  Sir  George,  26,  184. 

Dudley,  Thomas,  present  at  the 
impeachment  of  John  Winthrop, 
6;  connected  with  Winthrop  by 
marriage,  15, 102 ;  a  signer  of  the 
11  Cambridge  Agreement,"  35  ; 
leaves  England  with  Winthrop, 
51,  54;  quoted,  63,  65,  68,  85, 
168;  Deputy-Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, 66,  106-107,  156, 
174;  settles  at  Charlestown,  66; 
a  founder  of  the  first  church  at 
Charlestown,  72 ;  quarrels  with 
Winthrop,  95-103,  130-131  ; 
causes  of  the  quarrel,  95  ;  re- 
signs from  the  Assistants' 
Court,  96,  105 ;  resumes  his 
position    in    Assistants'   Court, 


INDEX. 


237 


97;  questions  Winthrop's  au- 
thority, 98-100 ;  issue  of  the 
controversy  with  Winthrop,  102 
-103  ;  Governor  of  Massachu- 
setts, 116,  191,  192,  217;  de- 
feated for  Governor,  127;  cre- 
ated a  member  of  the  M  Standing 
Council,"  142-143;  removed 
from  the  United  Colonies'  Com- 
mission, 209. 

Dummer,  Richard,  159,  187. 

Dunster,  Henry,  185. 

Eaton,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  184, 
185. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  162-163. 

Edwardston,  birthplace  of  John 
Winthrop,  12. 

Eliot,  John,  84,  91,  112,  193. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  22,  43. 

Emanuel  College,  35. 

Endicott,  John,  5,  65,  76,  84,  155, 
187,  215,  229  ;  leaves  England, 
28 ;  takes  charge  of  the  settle- 
ment at  Salem,  38  ;  reinforced, 
40';  superseded  by  Winthrop, 
64 ;  fined  for  assault  and  bat- 
tery, 78;  quoted,  81;  enter- 
tains Winthrop  at  Salem,  90 ; 
his  mutilation  of  the  British 
Flag,  136-138,  142  ;  his  punish- 
ment, 137-138  ;  appointed  to 
the  "Standing  Council,"  143  ; 
his  punishment  of  the  Pequots, 
146,  169;  a  colonel  of  militia, 
147;  loyalty  to  Winthrop,  208- 
209  ;  elected  Governor,  209  ;  de- 
feated for  re-election,  217. 

Episcopacy,  220. 

"  Experiencia,"  15,  17,  21,23,40. 

Fines,  Charles,  54. 
Fiske,  John,  quoted,  124. 


Forth,  Mary,  first  wife  of  John 
Winthrop,  15;  her  death,  23; 
her  children,  64,  210. 

Fuller,  Deacon,  no. 

General  Court,  the,   39,   116, 

122,  128,  141,  I44,  159,177,182, 
188,  192,  I95,  212,213,  215,217, 

218,  221,  222;  first  founded  in 
the  Massachusetts  Colony,  78- 
80;  not  the  centre  of  colonial 
life,  108 ;  town  representation 
in,  117;  Governor  Winthrop 
summoned  before,  117-118;  ban. 
ishes  Roger  Williams,  134-135  ; 
its  changes  in  the  government, 
142-144  votes  money  to  found 
Harvard  College,  147;  arraign- 
ment of  John  Wheelwright,  155  ; 
tries  the  leading  Antinomians, 
165-167 ;  levies  soldiers,  171 J 
reconstruction  of,  197-198,  199- 
201. 

Gibbons,  Captain,  205. 

Gibbons,  Mrs.,  203. 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  119,  139, 
140,  202. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  222,  223,  224. 

"  Governor's  Garden,"  the,  108, 
186,  203,  204,  205. 

Great  Stambridge,  15. 

Groton  Manor,  John  Winthrop's 
English  home,  12,  13,  15,  91. 

Hamilton,  Marquis  of,  139. 

Hampden,  John,  22. 

Hartford,  144-146. 

Harvard,  John,  184. 

Harvard  University,  147,  184-185, 

194, 234. 
Hathorne,  Speaker,  212. 
Haynes,   John,  101-102,   130  ;  his 

anival  in    Massachusetts,  112; 


238 


INDEX. 


in  sympathy  with  popular  gov- 
ernment, 113,  r44;  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, 127,  145 ;  a  colonel  of 
militia,  147. 

Henry  VIII.,  12. 

Hibbins,  William,  195. 

Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  43  note 
1 ;  in  charge  of  reinforcements  to 
Salem,  40  ;  his  glowing  descrip- 
tion of  New  England,  62-63  ;  his 
death    at   Salem,    63 ;    quoted, 

73- 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth, 
43  note  1. 

Hingham,  12,  127,  217,  219. 

Hobart,  Peter,  instigator  of  Win- 
throp's  impeachment,  6,  217, 
219. 

Hooker,  Richard,  19. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  101-102, 
121,  170,  194;  his  arrival  in 
Massachusetts,  112;  a  sympa- 
thizer with  popular  government, 
113,  114;  migrates  to  Connecti- 
cut, 144-146 ;  a  close  friend  of 
Winthrop,  146 ;  his  death,  227. 

Hubbard,  quoted,  114. 

Hughes,  Archbishop,  quoted,  148. 

Humphrey,  John,  120,  189;  a 
signer  of  the  "  Cambridge 
Agreement,"  35,  112;  quoted, 
71 ;  son-in-law  of  the  Earl  of 
Lincoln,  112;  his  arrival  in 
Massachusetts,  112. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Ann,  188 ;  the 
author  of  the  Antinomian  Con- 
troversy, 149 ;  description  of, 
149 ;  her  most  offensive  claims, 
152;  trial  and  banishment  of, 
165-166 ;  excommunication  of, 
166-167;  settles  in  Rhode  Island, 
167;  massacred  by  Indians, 
167-168 ;  not  sacrificed  to  re- 
ligious bigotry,  168,  169 ;  nearly 


caused    Massachusetts'   disrup- 
tion, 169. 
Hutchinson,     Governor,    quoted, 
1 1 8-1 19. 


Indians,  the,  83-87, 146-147, 154, 

162,  168,  169-173,  193,  229. 
Ipswich,  84,  161. 
Isle  Prudence,  186. 


James  I.,  36. 

"Jewell,"  the,  51,  57. 

Johnson,  Edward,  quoted,  67. 

Johnson,  Isaac,  84;  an  intimate 
friend  of  John  Winthrop,  21  ;  a 
signer  of  the  "  Cambridge  Agree- 
ment," 35;  son-in-law  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  40,  112 ;  leaves 
England  with  Winthrop,  51, 
54 ;  died  at  Charlestown,  66 ; 
a  founder  of  the  church  at 
Charlestown,  72. 

Johnson,  Lady  Arbella,  sails  for 
New  England,  51 ;  dies  at 
Charlestown,  66. 


Keayne,  Captain,  198,  199. 
King's  Chapel,  231. 


La  Tour,  Charles,  203-208. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  20,  104,  192, 
219;  his  hostility  to  the  Puri- 
tans, 121,  127,  139,  140. 

Lechford,  Thomas,  183. 

Leigh,  Lord,  160,  161,  163. 

"  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Win- 
throp," 28,  43  note  1. 

"  Life  of  Francis  Higginson,"  43 
note  1. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,    33. 

Lincoln,  Countess  of,  63,  65. 


INDEX. 


239 


Lincoln,  Earl  of,  40,  112. 

Long  Parliament,  192. 

Lords  Commissioners,  165,  215  ; 
in  charge  of  colonial  affairs,  121 ; 
recall  the  Massachusetts  charter 
to  New  England,  122,  176-177, 
180 ;  their  endeavours  to  block 
emigration  to  America,  138. 

Luddam,  m. 

Ludlow,  Roger,  105,  106,  122. 

Lynn,  65,  84,  161,  229. 

"  Lyon,"  the,  64,  71,  91,  109. 

Lyons,  Lord,  25. 


11  Magnalia,"  Mather's,  168,  210, 

Maine,  202,    04. 

Maiden,  66. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  12. 

Mason,  John,  119,  139,  140. 

Massachusetts,  a  grant  of  the  land 
secured  by  John  Endicott  and 
others,  37 ;  Rev.  John  White  the 
prime  mover  in  its  settlement, 
37-38 ;  Endicott  emigrates  to,  38 ; 
organization  of  a  company  for  its 
settlement,  38-40 ;  John  Win- 
throp's' emigration  to,  50-54,  57- 
61 ;  condition  of  the  colonists  at 
first,  62-64,  65-69, 71,  88;  forma- 
tion of  churches,  72-77  ;  organ- 
ization of  civil  government,  yj- 
81  ;  settlement  of  Boston,  82-83  ; 
dealings  with  the  Indians,  83- 
87  ;  controversy  between  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Deputy-Governor, 
95-103  ;  political  troubles,  103- 
106,  182,  212-214 ;  reforms  in 
government,  106-107,  183-184; 
new  arrivals  in  the  colony, 
112-113, 127,  128-129,  176,  181 ; 
renewal  of  political  agitations, 
114-115  ;  Thomas  Dudley,  Gov- 
ernor, 116,  191,  192;  its  charter 


attacked,  1 19-124,  138-140,  218- 
225  ;  the  especial  object  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud's  hostility,  121, 
139 ;  its  charter  recalled  to  Eng- 
land, 122,  177-180;  measures 
for  its  defence,  123-124 ;  its  pol- 
icy of  Avoid  or  Protract,  123, 
180 ;  increase  of  trade,  127 ; 
domestic  dissensions,  127-128, 
130-13 1 ;  the  charter  assailed  by 
Roger  Williams,  133-135  ;  Wil- 
liams banished,  134 ;  election  of 
Sir  Henry  Vane  as  Governor, 
141 ;  migrations  to  Connecticut, 
144-146 ;  Indian  troubles,  146- 
147,  154,  162;  improvement  of 
the  military  organization,  146- 
147;  French  hostility,  154;  its 
indebtedness  to  Winthrop  as  me- 
diator in  the  Antinomian  contro- 
versy, 156;  Winthrop  re-elected 
Governor,  156,  159,  174;  Win- 
throp's  interpretation  of  the 
charter,  1 60-1 61 ;  results  of  the 
Antinomian  controversy,  162- 
167  ;  ideas  of  religious  liberty  in, 
168-169;  return  of  the  Quakers, 
169 ;  its  narrow  escape  from  dis- 
ruption by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  169; 
the  Pequot  War,  169-173;  alli- 
ance with  the  Narragansetts,  1 70; 
arrival  of  the  colony's  first  print- 
ing-press, 181 ;  Richard  Belling- 
ham  Governor,  192  ;  period  of 
great  progress,  192 ;  cessation 
of  emigration,  193  ;  population, 
193 ;  emigration  to  England, 
193-194,  196 ;  hard  times,  194- 
197 ;  reconstruction  of  legisla- 
ture, 197-198,  199-201  ;  the 
"  Sow  Business,"  198-200  ;  the 
New  England  Confederacy,  201- 
202  ;  the  Acadian  trouble,  203- 
208  ;  divided  into  four  counties, 


240 


INDEX. 


207  ;  foreign  relations,  214-217 ; 
supports  Parliament  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  king,  215  ;  instructs 
Parliament,  215-217  ;  the  Hing- 
ham  trouble,  217-218;  the  Cam- 
bridge Synod,  225-226 ;  John 
Winthrop's  death,  231-232. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Company,  the, 
formation  of,  38-40 ;  its  first 
Governor,  39 ;  sends  reinforce- 
ments to  Salem,  39-40 ;  the 
charter  transferred  to  New  Eng- 
land, 41-42;  its  Indian  policy, 
84 ;  its  narrow  escape  from  Qtco 
Warranto,  139. 

Masters,  John,  93. 

Masters  Brook,  93. 

Mather,  Cotton,  15,  168,  210 ; 
quoted,  18,  70,  175,  233. 

Medford,  88,  93. 

Merrimack,  99. 

Merrymount,  see  Quincy. 

Milborne,  Captain  Peter,  59. 

Military  Commission,  the,  137, 
141. 

Mishawum,  see  Charlestown. 

"  Model  of  Charity,"  the,  75. 

Mohegans,  the,  172. 

Morton,  Thomas,  77-78,  85,  119, 
122. 

Mystic,  88. 


Nantasket,  91. 

Narragansett  Bay,  134,  135,   167, 

202. 
Narragansett  Indians,  the,  1 70-1 71. 
Naumkeag,  see  Salem. 
Neponset  River,  the,  84,  93. 
New  Brunswick,  204. 
New    England    Confederacy,    the, 

201-202,  215, 222. 
"  New  English  Canaan,"  the,  78. 
New  Hampshire,  167. 


New  Haven  Colony,  163,  201-202. 

New  York,  167. 

Newbury,  127. 

Newcastle,  Duke  of,  descendant  of 
Samuel  Winthrop,  25. 

Newtown,  100,  155,  184;  after- 
wards Cambridge,  95  ;  Dudley's 
house  at,  95,  96 ;  designed  for 
the  capital  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony,  97  ;  Winthrop's  house 
begun  at,  97-98;  taxed  for  Bos- 
ton's fortifications,  101  ;  fortifica- 
tion of,  105  ;  new  arrivals  at,  112 ; 
its  migration  to  Connecticut, 
144-146. 

Nova  Scotia,  204. 

Nowell,  Increase,  a  signer  of  the 
"Cambridge  Agreement,"  35, 
230. 

Oldham,  John,  146. 


Palfrey,  quoted,  113,  167. 

Peirce,  William,  64. 

Pequots,  146,  165,  169-172. 

Peter,  Rev.  Hugh,  154,  223 ;  ar- 
rival in  Massachusetts,  128-129  ; 
installed  pastor  at  Salem,  129; 
fosters  commerce,  129;  active 
in  the  English  Revolution,  129  ; 
Cromwell's  chaplain,  129 ;  one 
of  the  Regicides,  129 ;  died  on 
the  scaffold,  129;  mediator  be- 
tween Winthrop  and  Dudley, 
1 30-1 3 1  ;  sent  on  a  mission  to 
England,  195. 

Phillips,  George,  51,  54. 

Pilgrims,  the,  35,  73,  109. 

Piscataqua,  see  Portsmouth,  120. 

Plymouth,  35,  76,  77,  89,  99,  109- 
i",  133,  *fh  201-202. 

Porter,  John,  56. 

Portsmouth,  120. 


INDEX. 


241 


Presbyterianism,  220,  225. 

Pride's  Purge,  225. 

Prince,  Thomas,  57. 

Privy  Council,  its  proceeding 
against  Massachusetts,  1 19-120  , 
loses  control  of  colonial  affairs, 
121. 

Protestantism,  its  desperate  situ- 
ation, 20 ;  its  fortunes  watched 
by  the  Bay  Colony,  109. 

Pullen  Point,  186. 

Puritans,  the,  109;  not  Separa- 
tists on  principle,  73-74;  non- 
conformists, 74;  opposed  to  the 
Church  of  England  Establish- 
ment, 75  ;  their  Indian  policy, 
84  ;  Archbishop  Laud's  hostility 
toward,  121. 

Pyncheon,  William,  present  at 
John  Winthrop's  impeachment, 
6 ;  a  signer  of  the  "  Cambridge 
Agreement,"  35. 


Quakers,  the,  169. 
Quincy,  77. 
Quinnipiack,  163. 


Rhode  Island,  135,  167,  202. 

Rochelle,  20. 

Rogers,  Ezekiel,  203. . 

"  Romeo  and  Juliet,"   conjectural 

origin  of  the  Tomb  Scene,  23. 
Roxbury,  66,  146  note  I. 
Ryece,  Robert,  47. 

Salem,  136,  161  ;  original  settle- 
ment at,  37-38  ;  arrival  of  Win- 
throp  at,  61 ;  its  location  unsat- 
isfactory, 63-64,  65  ;  its  first 
church,  73,  74,  76  ;  commercially 
jealous  of  Boston,  207,  208. 


Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  6,  54,  78, 
120 ;  a  signer  of  the  "  Cambridge 
Agreement,"  35  ;  leaves  Eng- 
land with  Winthrop,  51. 

Saugus,  see  Lynn. 

Savage,  James,  57. 

Say  and  Sele,  Lord,  113,  143,  190. 

Saybrook,  171. 

Shawmut,  old  name  for  Boston 
peninsula,  82,  83. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  171. 

Sherman,  Mrs.,  198,  199. 

Sherman,  Ursula,  49. 

Skelton,  Rev.  Samuel,  40,  62. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  70. 

Sow  Business,  the,  198-200. 

Spanish  Armada,  the,  12. 

Spot  Pond,  93. 

Springfield,  146  note  1. 

11  Standing  Council,"  the,  142-143, 
182. 

"  St.  Patrick,"  the,  137. 

Stone,  Samuel,  112,  113,  144. 

Stoughton,  Israel,  128,  213. 

Strafford,  Earl  of,  see  Thomas 
Wentworth. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  232. 

11  Talbot,"  the,  51,  57. 

Ten  Hills,  88,  89. 

"  Thanksgiving  Day,"  its  origin, 

11  Thirty-nine  Articles,"  the,  74. 
Tilly,  21. 

Trimountain,  see  Shawmut. 
Trinity  College,  14,  26. 
Trumbull,     Gov.     Jonathan     56, 

234- 

Tyndal,  Margaret,  the  third  wife 
of  John  Winthrop,  24 ;  her  beau- 
tiful character,  24. 

Tyndal,  Sir  John,  father  of  Mar- 
garet Tyndal,  24,  227. 


16 


242 


INDEX. 


Uncas,  172,  173. 

Underhill,   Capt.   John,   150-151, 

166,  171. 
United  Colonies  of  New  England, 

the,  201. 


Van  Twilly,  Gwalter,  88. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  144,  164,  171 ; 
his  arrival  in  Massachusetts,  128- 
129,  141 ;  experienced  in  affairs 
of  State,  129;  interests  himself 
in  colonial  matters,  129-130  ;  a 
mediator  between  Winthrop  and 
Dudley,  1 30-1 31 ;  a  personal 
friend  of  the  king,  141 ;  ap- 
pointed on  the  military  com- 
mission, 141 ;  elected  Gover- 
nor, 141 ;  the  Castle  Island  af- 
fair, 1 41-142  ;  Indian  troubles, 
146-147  ;  a  firm  believer  in  the 
Antinomian  doctrines,  152  ;  his 
unpopularity,  154-156;  fails  of 
re-election  as  Governor,  156, 
159;  elected  to  the  General 
Court,  159-160  ;  his  discourteous 
treatment  of  Winthrop,  160  ;  re- 
turns to  England,  161 ;  Win- 
throp's  tribute  to,  161. 

Vassall,  William,  a  signer  of  the 
"Cambridge  Agreement,"  35, 
219,  220,  221. 

Virginia,  185. 


Wallenstein,  21. 
Ward,  Nathaniel,  193. 
Warwick,  Earl  of,  37,  215,  224. 
Washington,  Gen.  George,  56. 
Watertown,  66,  93  ;   its  refusal  to 

pay  taxes,  105  ;  its  migration  to 

Connecticut,  144-146. 


Webster,  Noah,  56-57. 

Welde,  Elder,  152,  195. 

Wentworth,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Strafford,  137,  192,  219. 

Wessaguscus,  see  Weymouth. 

West  Indies,  189, 190. 

Wethersfield,  original  settlement 
of,  144-146. 

Weymouth,  109,  no,  127. 

Wheelwright,  John,  152, 153, 188  ; 
convicted  of  seditious  utter- 
ances, 155 ;  banished  from 
Massachusetts,  165,  167. 

White,  Rev.  John,  37,  38. 

Wiggin,  Thomas,  120. 

Williams,  Roger,  136,  168,  169 ; 
his  arrival  in  Massachusetts,  112, 
132 ;  a  source  of  annoyance  to 
Massachusetts,  132-135  ;  a  pro- 
mulgator of  religious  toleration, 
132 ;  his  sweetness  of  temper, 
132  ;  the  personification  of  social 
incompatibility,  132-133 ;  not 
the  victim  of  religious  bigotry, 
133,  168 ;  attacks  the  Massa- 
chusetts charter,  133-135;  flees 
to  Narragansett  Bay,  135  ;  his 
good-will  toward  Massachusetts, 
135 ;  a  close  friend  of  Win- 
throp, 135 ;  intercedes  with  the 
Narragansetts,  170. 

Wilson,  Rev.  John,  113,  153,  156, 


165, 


an  intimate  friend  of 


John  Winthrop,  6;  a  founder  of 
the  church  at  Charlestown,  72 ; 
returns  to  England  for  his  fam- 
ily,  .87 ;  accompanies  Win- 
throp on  a  visit  to  Plymouth, 
109-110;  John  Cotton's  col- 
league in  Boston,  113;  speech 
from  a  tree,  156. 
Winslow,  Edward,  187,  222,  223, 
224,  228. 


INDEX. 


243 


Windsor,  144-146. 

Winthrop,  town  of,  named  for 
Deane  Winthrop,  25,  186. 

Winthrop,  Adam,  father  of  John 
Winthrop,  12  ;  died,  13. 

Winthrop,  Adam  2d,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  25,  50,  92,  93,  186, 
228  ;  died  at  Boston,  25. 

Winthrop,  Anne,  mother  of  John 
Winthrop,  12;  died,  13. 

Winthrop,  Deane,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  25,  186,  228  ;  left  at 
school  in  England,  92. 

Winthrop,  Forth,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  15 ;  letters  to  his 
brother  John,  27 ;  a  student  at 
Emanuel  College,  35  ;  matrimo- 
nial intentions,  49. 

Winthrop,  Henry,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  15,50,58;  drowned 
at  Salem,  64-65. 

Winthrop,  John,  78, 126,  151, 161, 
163, 167, 215,  216  ;  impeachment 
of,  1-9,  218  ;  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, 4-5  ;  his  speech  of  de- 
fence, 6-9,  217,  218  ;  birth,  12  ; 
the  descendant  of  an  old  and  hon- 
ourable family,  13  ;  his  boyhood, 
13  ;  reared  in  a  Puritan  atmos- 
phere, 14;  his  marriage,  14; 
birth  of  his  first  child,  14 ;  other 
children  of  this  marriage,  15 ; 
misses  his  university  degree,  14- 
15  ;  practises  law,  15  ;  justice  of 
the  peace,  15 ;  becomes  lord  of 
Groton  Manor,  15;  his  inward 
life  as  described  in  the  "  Expe- 
riencia"  and  "Christian  Expe- 
rience," 15-19,  156-158;  his  in- 
timate relation  with  the  Puritan 
leaders,  21-22  ;  death  of  his  first 
wife,  23  ;  second  marriage,  23  ; 
loses  his  second  wife,  23 ;  his 
great  grief  at  her  death,  23-24  ; 


marries  his  third  wife,  24 ;  chil- 
dren by  this  marriage,  25  ;  suc- 
cess in  his  profession,  25-26  ;  at- 
torney in  the  Court  of  Wards 
and  Liveries,  26 ;  preparations 
for  leaving  England,  28,  48-50*; 
his  life  in  England,  28-33  5  cor- 
respondence with  his  wife,  30- 

33*  34»  35>  48,  5°>  5i~52>  68,  90, 
161 ;  thoughts  of  leaving  Eng- 
land, 22,  34-35 ;  a  signer  of 
the  "  Cambridge  Agreement," 
35  ;  determines  to  go  to  Massa- 
chusetts, 35-36  ;  not  an  original 
member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  Company,  39,  42  ;  his  first 
connection  with  the  New  Eng- 
land enterprise,  40-41,  42-43 ; 
his  writings  justifying  the  pur- 
pose of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Company,  43-47 ;  governor  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Com- 
pany, 48  ;  departure  from  Eng- 
land, 50-51 ;  his  private  journal, 
55-57,  59-60;  arrival  at  Salem, 
61  ;  assumes  charge  of  affairs  at 
Salem,  64  ;  his  trying  position, 
64,  68  ;  in  search  of  a  new  place 
of  settlement,  64;  death  of  his 
son  Henry,  64-65;  removes  to 
Charlestown,  66  ;  his  steadfast 
loyalty  to  New  England,  69-71 ; 
birth  of  a  daughter,  71  ;  death  of 
his  son  Forth,  71  ;  a  founder 
of  the  church  at  Charlestown, 
72;  quoted,  75, 127, 128,  136, 140, 
141,  144-145)  MQ-^Oj  166,  176, 
182,  183,  188,  196-197,200,  208, 
214,  219,  223,  224, 226, 227,  228  ; 
his  "  Model  of  Charity,"  75  ;  his 
theory  of  government,  79 ;  re- 
moval to  Boston,  82  Relations 
with  the  Indians,  83-87;  his 
summer  house  at  Mystic,    88 ; 


244 


INDEX. 


makes  official  visits  to  Lynn  and 
Salem,  90 ;  arrival  of  his  family 
in  Massachusetts,  90-92 ;  sale  of 
Groton  Manor,  90-91  ;  death  of 
his  youngest  child,  91  ;  inland 
explorations,  93-94;  quarrel  with 
Dudley,  95-103;  his  authority 
questioned,  98-100 ;  his  daugh- 
ter Mary  married  to  Dudley's 
son,  102  ;  final  issue  of  the  con- 
troversy with  Dudley,  102-103  ; 
political  troubles,  103-106,  182, 
212-214;  constitutional  reforms, 
106-107,  _i 83-1 84  ;  re-elected 
Governor,  106-107,  156,  174, 
181,  192,  197,  218;  remunera- 
tion for  his  services,  107-108; 
his  visit  to  Plymouth,  1 09-1 11  ; 
defeated  for  Governor,  116,  191, 
209;  chosen  assistant,  116; 
renders  account  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  117-118;  the  fore- 
most man  in  the  colony,  119, 
124-126 ;  appointed  member  of 
the  military  committee,  123;  dis- 
ciplined for  lenity,  130-132,  135  ; 
his  friendship  for  Roger  Wil- 
liams, 135  ;  chosen  Deputy-Gov- 
ernor, 141,  209,  217  ;  created  a 
member  of  the  "  Standing  Coun- 
cil," 142-143  ;  his  sorrow  at  the 
Connecticut  migrations,  144  ;  his 
friendship  for  Thomas  Hooker, 
146 ;  a  colonel  of  militia,  147 ; 
chairman  of  the  commission  for 
founding  Harvard  College,  147  ; 
not  in  sympathy  with  the  Anti- 
nomian  movement,  153,  156- 
158  ;  mediator  in  the  Antinomian 
controversy,  156;  his  fiftieth 
birthday,  158  ;  Sir  Henry  Vane's 
discourtesy  to,  160;  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  charter,  160- 
161,  164 ;  his  tribute  to  Vane, 


161  ;  his  popularity  outside 
Boston,  161-162 ;  kindly  dis- 
posed toward  the  Indians, 
172-173;  prostrated  by  fever, 
174;  friendly  relations  restored 
with  Bostonians,  174-175,  188; 
anecdote  about  him,  175 ;  his 
dealings  with  the  Lord  Com- 
missioners, 177-179;  his  super- 
vision of  Harvard  College,  184- 
185  ;  private  adversity,  185-189; 
devoted  to  Massachusetts,  189; 
displeased  at  the  West  Indies 
emigrations,  iSg-igof'igo  ;  pres- 
ident of  the  New  England  Con- 
federacy, 202  ;  the  Acadian  trou- 
ble, 203-208  ;  removed  from  the 
United  Colonies  Commission, 
209 ;  letter  to  his  veldest  son, 
210-21 1  ;  the  Dissenter's  Cabal, 
218-225;  narrowly  escapes  going 
on  a  mission  to  England,  222- 
223 ;  his  closing  days,  227-232 ; 
death  of  his  wife  Margaret,  227- 
228;  his  cares  lightened,  229- 
230;  fourth  marriage,  230;  a 
son  born  to  him,  230 ;  his  last 
sickness,  230;  his  death,  231 ; 
buried  in  King's  Chapel  Bury- 
ing-ground,  231;  mourned  by 
the  whole  country,  231-232; 
statues  of  him,  232;  subordi- 
nated the  State  to  the  Church, 
232 ;  conservative  in  politics, 
jffi:  a  mediator  between  rival 
parties,  232-233;  the  represen- 
tative of  independent  self-gov- 
ernment^233. 
WinthropTjohn,  Jr.,  eldest  son  of 
John  Winthrop,  5-6,  15,  35,  49, 
69, 112,  136,  186,  229;  his  birth, 
14;  goes  to  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  26;  his  father's  pride 
in    him,    26-27 ;    admitted   to 


INDEX. 


245 


the  Inner  Temple,  27-28  ;  gives 
up  the  law  and  enters  the  navy, 
28;  dissuaded  by  his  father 
from  going  to  America,  28 ; 
accompanies  his  mother  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, 90-91;  married,  92; 
elected  to  the  Board  of  As- 
sistants, 107 ;  returns  to  Eng- 
land, 195  ;  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut, 228 ;  summoned  to  his  fa- 
ther's funeral,  231. 

Winthrop,  John,  LL.D.,  professor 
at  Harvard  College,  25. 

Winthrop,  Margaret,  wife  of  John 
Winthrop,  24,  186,  188 ;  corre- 
spondence with  her  husband,  30- 
33,  34,  35,  48,  5°»  5lS2>  68,  90, 
161 ;  joins  her  husband  in  Massa- 
chusetts,     90-92 ;      loses     her 


youngest  child,  91  ;  her  death, 
227-228. 

Winthrop,  Mary,  daughter  of  John 
Winthrop,  15  ;  daughter-in-law 
of  Thomas  Dudley,  15,  102; 
her  death,  210. 

Winthrop,  Robert  C,  quoted,  10; 
his  "  Life  and  Letters  of  John 
Winthrop,"  14  note  1,  28,  43 
note  1. 

Winthrop,  Samuel,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  25,  92, 186,  228  ;  gov- 
ernor of  Antigua,  25  ;  ancestor 
of  Lord  Lyons  and  Duke  of 
Newcastle,  25. 

Winthrop,  Stephen,  son  of  John 
Winthrop,  25,  50,  92,  186,  194  ; 
takes  part  in  the  English  Revo- 
lution, 25,  228,  229. 


MAKERS  OF  AMERICA. 


The  following  is  a  list  of  the  subjects  and  authors  so 
far  arranged  for  in  this  series.  The  volumes  will 
be  published  at  the  uniform  price  of  $1.00,  and 
will  appear  in  rapid  succession :  — 

Christopher  Columbus  (1436-1506),  and  the  Discov- 
ery of  the  New  World.  By  Charles  Kendall 
Adams,  President  of  Cornell  University. 

John  Winthrop  (1588- 1649),  First  Governor  of 
the  Massachusetts  Colony.  By  Rev.  Joseph  H. 
Twichell. 

Robert  Morris  (1 734-1 806),  Superintendent  of  Finance 
under  the  Continental  Congress.  By  Prof.  William 
G.  Sumner,  of  Yale  University. 

James  Edward  Oglethorpe  (1689-1785),  and  the  Found- 
ing of  the  Georgia  Colony.  By  Henry  Bruce, 
Esq. 

John  Hughes,  D.D.  (1797-1864),  First  Archbishop  cf 
New -York  :  a  Representative  American  Catholic. 
By  Henry  A.  Brann,  D.D. 

Robert  Fulton  (1 765-181 5):  His  Life  and  its  Results. 
By  Prof.  R.  H.  Thurston,  of  Cornell  University. 


2  MAKERS    OF  AMERICA. 

Francis  Higginson  (1587- 1630),  Puritan,  Author  of 
"  New  England's  Plantation,"  etc.  By  Thomas  W. 
Higginson. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  (1602-1682),  and  the  Dutch  Settle- 
ment of  New- York.  By  Bayard  Tuckerman, 
Esq.,  author  of  a  "  Life  of  General  Lafayette, " 
editor  of  the  "  Diary  of  Philip  Hone,"  etc.,  etc. 

Thomas  Hooker  (1586- 1647),  Theologian,  Founder  of 
the  Hartford  Colony.  By  George  L.  Walker, 
D.D. 

Charles  Sumner  (1811-1874),  Statesman.  By  Anna 
L.  Dawes. 

Thomas  Jefferson  (1743- 1826),  Third  President  of  the 
United  States.  By  James  Schouler,  Esq.,  author 
of  "A  History  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution." 

William  White  (1 748-1 836),  Chaplain  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  President  of 
the  Convention  to  organize  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  America.  By  Rev.  Julius  H.  Ward, 
with  an  Introduction  by  Right  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  New- York. 

Jean  Baptiste  Lemoine,  sieur  de  Bienville  (1 680-1 768), 
French  Governor  of  Louisiana,  Founder  of  New 
Orleans.  By  Grace  King,  author  of  "  Monsieur 
Motte." 

Alexander  Hamilton  (1 757-1 804),  Statesman,  Finan- 
cier, Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  By  Prof.  William 
G.  Sumner,  of  Yale  University. 

Cotton  Mather  (1663-1728),  Theologian,  Author,  Be- 
liever in  Witchcraft  and  the  Supernatural.  By  Prof. 
Barrett  Wendell,  of  Harvard  University. 


MAKERS    OF  AMERICA.  3 

Robert  Cavelier,  sieur  de  La  Salle  (1643-1687),  Ex- 
plorer of  the  Northwest  and  the  Mississippi.  By 
Edward  G.  Mason,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Histori- 
cal  Society  of  Chicago,  author  of  "  Illinois"  in  the 
Commonwealth  Series. 

Thomas  Nelson  (1738- 1789),  Governor  of  Virginia, 
General  in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  Embracing  a 
Picture  of  Virginian  Colonial  Life.  By  Thomas 
Nelson  Page,  author  of  "  Mars  Chan,"  and  other 
popular  stories. 

George  and  Cecilius  Calvert,  Barons  Baltimore  of 
Baltimore  (1605- 1676),  and  the  Founding  of  the 
Maryland  Colony.  By  William  Hand  Browne, 
editor  of  "  The  Archives  of  Maryland." 

Sir  William  Johnson  (17 15-1774),  and  The  Six  Na- 
tions. By  William  Elliot  Griffis,  D.D.,  author 
of  "  The  Mikado's  Empire,"  etc. ,  etc. 

Sam.  Houston  (1793- 1862),  and  the  Annexation  of 
Texas.    By  Henry  Bruce,  Esq. 

Joseph  Henry,  LL.D.  (1 797-1878),  Savant  and  Natural 
Philosopher.     By  Frederic  H.  Betts,  Esq. 

Ralph  "Waldo  Emerson.  By  Prof.  Herman  Grimm, 
author  of  "  The  Life  of  Michael  Angelo,"  "  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Goethe,"  etc. 

DODD,  MEAD,  &  COMPANY, 

5  East  19th  Street,  New  York. 


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